NEETBotanyBiodiversity and its Conservation
What is the main goal of a stable community?
Options
- ATo show variation in productivity
- BTo be resistant to disturbances and invasions by alien species
- CTo have a high species richness
- DTo understand the link between species richness and ecosystem health
Correct answer
B. To be resistant to disturbances and invasions by alien species
Step-by-step solution
A stable community should not show too much variation in productivity from year to year; it must be either resistant or resilient to occasional disturbances (natural or man-made), and it must also be resistant to invasions by alien species. We don’t know how these attributes are linked to species richness in a community, but David Tilman’s long-term ecosystem experiments using outdoor plots provide some tentative answers. Tilman found that plots with more species showed less year-to-year variation in total biomass.