NEETBotanyBiodiversity and its Conservation
What did David Tilman's experiments conclude about the relationship between species richness and ecosystem health?
Options
- APlots with more species showed less year:to:year variation in total biomass
- BIncreased diversity decreased productivity
- CThere is no relationship between species richness and ecosystem health
- DThe relationship between species richness and ecosystem health is not understood
Correct answer
A. Plots with more species showed less year:to:year variation in total biomass
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.