Understanding the relationships among biodiversity, ecosystem function, and ecosystem services is central to applied ecology. We examined plant productivity, litter decomposition rate, and soil respiration rate following removal of select plants to simulate extinction scenarios previously documented in Mongolian grasslands. Additionally we analyzed the relationships between plant trait (function) diversity and ecosystem functions. Plants in experimental plots were removed according to four extinction scenarios: 1) dominant species first; 2) rare species first; 3) combination of scenarios 1 and 2; and 4) random extinction. The first scenario occurred frequently in grassland ecosystems that were overgrazed. The second scenario was frequently associated with climate change. The relationship between species richness and soil respiration rate was moderately positive. However, the relationship varied among the four species removal scenarios. Although soil respiration rate was relatively unchanged by removal of dominant or rare species, it was vulnerable to random species removal. These results indicate that species loss will degrade multiple Mongolian grassland ecosystem functions.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.