Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Roger, Fabian
• Godhe, Anna
• Gamfeldt, Lars
• Hector, Andrew

Titel

Genetic diversity and ecosystem functioning in the face of multiple stressors

Ist Teil von

• PloS one, 2012-09, Vol.7 (9), p.e45007-e45007

Ort / Verlag

United States: Public Library of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Free E-Journal (出版社公開部分のみ）

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Species diversity is important for a range of ecosystem processes and properties, including the resistance to single and multiple stressors. It has been suggested that genetic diversity may play a similar role, but empirical evidence is still relatively scarce. Here, we report the results of a microcosm experiment where four strains of the marine diatom Skeletonema marinoi were grown in monoculture and in mixture under a factorial combination of temperature and salinity stress. The strains differed in their susceptibility to the two stressors and no strain was able to survive both stressors simultaneously. Strong competition between the genotypes resulted in the dominance of one strain under both control and salinity stress conditions. The overall productivity of the mixture, however, was not related to the dominance of this strain, but was instead dependent on the treatment; under control conditions we observed a positive effect of genetic richness, whereas a negative effect was observed in the stress treatments. This suggests that interactions among the strains can be both positive and negative, depending on the abiotic environment. Our results provide additional evidence that the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationship is also relevant at the level of genetic diversity.