Human-caused environmental changes are rapidly affecting biodiversity, which could destabilize the natural systems that support human life. However, most of our understanding of how biodiversity affects ecosystem stability comes from controlled experiments, making it hard to predict real-world outcomes.
Researchers at the University of Helsinki studied how biodiversity helps ecosystems stay stable as the environment changes rapidly. Their findings suggest that more diverse communities are better at adapting to these shifts.
The researchers found more stability in diverse natural communities than in those with fewer species. This is because different species respond differently to climate change: some species suffer, while others can continue functioning and help maintain the stability of the community as a whole.
The mechanism behind this stability was also identified. Different groups of organisms maintain stability in various ways. For some, having more species ensures stability, while for others, the key factor is how species interact and complement each other through their traits.
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The study harnesses the power of six terrestrial and aquatic long-term monitoring datasets, encompassing entire assemblages at hundreds of georeferenced sites, providing 20 years of community measurements across Finland’s 1200 km latitudinal gradient.
A study finds that functional diversity is key to stabilizing natural communities. Bird communities that only eat insects have less variety in their roles than those that eat insects, berries, and fish. The most at-risk communities are those with few species and little diversity in their roles. Since most species respond the same way to environmental changes, they are more vulnerable to shifts in food supply or habitat conditions.
The study underscores mechanisms through which diversity boosts the stability and constancy of natural communities. It identified communities that are particularly sensitive to environmental change, allowing conservation measures to be targeted where they are most effective in curbing biodiversity loss and safeguarding ecosystem services.
Professor Anna-Liisa Laine, Director of the Research Centre for Ecological Change, said, “For our research, it’s invaluable to have nationwide datasets that include observations on hundreds of species collected over several decades by professionals and dedicated volunteers. These long-term, large-scale data allow us to uncover ecological processes that would remain hidden if we focused only on individual species or short-time series.”
Journal Reference:
- Rodrigues, A.V., Rissanen, T., Jones, M.M., Huikkonen, I.-M., Huitu, O., Korpimäki, E., Kuussaari, M., Lehikoinen, A., Lindén, A., Pietiäinen, H., Pöyry, J., Sihvonen, P., Suuronen, A., Vuorio, K., Saastamoinen, M., Vanhatalo, J. and Laine, A.-L. (2025), Cross-Taxa Analysis of Long-Term Data Reveals a Positive Biodiversity-Stability Relationship With Taxon-Specific Mechanistic Underpinning. Ecology Letters, 28: e70003. DOI: 10.1111/ele.70003
