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Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands

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Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands. / Zhang, Pengfei; Seabloom, Eric W.; Foo, Jasmine et al.
In: Nature Ecology and Evolution, 13.05.2025.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Zhang, P, Seabloom, EW, Foo, J, MacDougall, AS, Harpole, WS, Adler, PB, Hautier, Y, Eisenhauer, N, Spohn, M, Bakker, JD, Lekberg, Y, Young, AL, Carbutt, C, Risch, AC, Peri, PL, Smith, NG, Stevens, CJ, Prober, SM, Knops, JMH, Wardle, GM, Dickman, CR, Ebeling, A, Roscher, C, Martinson, HM, Martina, JP, Power, SA, Niu, Y, Ren, Z, Du, G, Virtanen, R, Tognetti, P, Tedder, MJ, Jentsch, A, Catford, JA & Borer, ET 2025, 'Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands', Nature Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02701-y

APA

Zhang, P., Seabloom, E. W., Foo, J., MacDougall, A. S., Harpole, W. S., Adler, P. B., Hautier, Y., Eisenhauer, N., Spohn, M., Bakker, J. D., Lekberg, Y., Young, A. L., Carbutt, C., Risch, A. C., Peri, P. L., Smith, N. G., Stevens, C. J., Prober, S. M., Knops, J. M. H., ... Borer, E. T. (2025). Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands. Nature Ecology and Evolution. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02701-y

Vancouver

Zhang P, Seabloom EW, Foo J, MacDougall AS, Harpole WS, Adler PB et al. Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 2025 May 13. Epub 2025 May 13. doi: 10.1038/s41559-025-02701-y

Author

Zhang, Pengfei ; Seabloom, Eric W. ; Foo, Jasmine et al. / Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands. In: Nature Ecology and Evolution. 2025.

Bibtex

@article{d5f8a209177b48c48c3e865531c5825d,
title = "Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands",
abstract = "The bidirectional relationship between plant species richness and community biomass is often variable and poorly resolved in natural grassland ecosystems, impeding progress in predicting impacts of environmental changes. Most biological communities have long-tailed species abundance distributions (for example, biomass, cover, number of individuals), a general property that may provide predictive power for species richness and community biomass. Here we show mathematical relationships between community characteristics and the abundance of dominant species arising from long-tailed distributions and test these predictions using observational and experimental data from 76 grassland sites across 6 continents. We find that community biomass provides little predictive ability for community richness, consistent with previous findings. By contrast, the relative abundance of dominant species quantitatively predicts species richness, whereas their absolute abundance quantitatively predicts community biomass under both ambient and altered environmental conditions, as expected mathematically. These results are robust to the type of abundance measure used. Three types of simulated data further show the generality of these results. Our integrative framework, arising from a few dominant species and mathematical properties of species abundance distributions, fills a persistent gap in our ability to predict community richness and biomass under ambient and anthropogenically altered conditions.",
author = "Pengfei Zhang and Seabloom, {Eric W.} and Jasmine Foo and MacDougall, {Andrew S.} and Harpole, {W. Stanley} and Adler, {Peter B.} and Yann Hautier and Nico Eisenhauer and Marie Spohn and Bakker, {Jonathan D.} and Ylva Lekberg and Young, {Alyssa L.} and Clinton Carbutt and Risch, {Anita C.} and Peri, {Pablo L.} and Smith, {Nicholas G.} and Stevens, {Carly J.} and Prober, {Suzanne M.} and Knops, {Johannes M. H.} and Wardle, {Glenda M.} and Dickman, {Christopher R.} and Anne Ebeling and Christiane Roscher and Martinson, {Holly M.} and Martina, {Jason P.} and Power, {Sally A.} and Yujie Niu and Zhengwei Ren and Guozhen Du and Risto Virtanen and Pedro Tognetti and Tedder, {Michelle J.} and Anke Jentsch and Catford, {Jane A.} and Borer, {Elizabeth T.}",
year = "2025",
month = may,
day = "13",
doi = "10.1038/s41559-025-02701-y",
language = "English",
journal = "Nature Ecology and Evolution",
issn = "2397-334X",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands

AU - Zhang, Pengfei

AU - Seabloom, Eric W.

AU - Foo, Jasmine

AU - MacDougall, Andrew S.

AU - Harpole, W. Stanley

AU - Adler, Peter B.

AU - Hautier, Yann

AU - Eisenhauer, Nico

AU - Spohn, Marie

AU - Bakker, Jonathan D.

AU - Lekberg, Ylva

AU - Young, Alyssa L.

AU - Carbutt, Clinton

AU - Risch, Anita C.

AU - Peri, Pablo L.

AU - Smith, Nicholas G.

AU - Stevens, Carly J.

AU - Prober, Suzanne M.

AU - Knops, Johannes M. H.

AU - Wardle, Glenda M.

AU - Dickman, Christopher R.

AU - Ebeling, Anne

AU - Roscher, Christiane

AU - Martinson, Holly M.

AU - Martina, Jason P.

AU - Power, Sally A.

AU - Niu, Yujie

AU - Ren, Zhengwei

AU - Du, Guozhen

AU - Virtanen, Risto

AU - Tognetti, Pedro

AU - Tedder, Michelle J.

AU - Jentsch, Anke

AU - Catford, Jane A.

AU - Borer, Elizabeth T.

PY - 2025/5/13

Y1 - 2025/5/13

N2 - The bidirectional relationship between plant species richness and community biomass is often variable and poorly resolved in natural grassland ecosystems, impeding progress in predicting impacts of environmental changes. Most biological communities have long-tailed species abundance distributions (for example, biomass, cover, number of individuals), a general property that may provide predictive power for species richness and community biomass. Here we show mathematical relationships between community characteristics and the abundance of dominant species arising from long-tailed distributions and test these predictions using observational and experimental data from 76 grassland sites across 6 continents. We find that community biomass provides little predictive ability for community richness, consistent with previous findings. By contrast, the relative abundance of dominant species quantitatively predicts species richness, whereas their absolute abundance quantitatively predicts community biomass under both ambient and altered environmental conditions, as expected mathematically. These results are robust to the type of abundance measure used. Three types of simulated data further show the generality of these results. Our integrative framework, arising from a few dominant species and mathematical properties of species abundance distributions, fills a persistent gap in our ability to predict community richness and biomass under ambient and anthropogenically altered conditions.

AB - The bidirectional relationship between plant species richness and community biomass is often variable and poorly resolved in natural grassland ecosystems, impeding progress in predicting impacts of environmental changes. Most biological communities have long-tailed species abundance distributions (for example, biomass, cover, number of individuals), a general property that may provide predictive power for species richness and community biomass. Here we show mathematical relationships between community characteristics and the abundance of dominant species arising from long-tailed distributions and test these predictions using observational and experimental data from 76 grassland sites across 6 continents. We find that community biomass provides little predictive ability for community richness, consistent with previous findings. By contrast, the relative abundance of dominant species quantitatively predicts species richness, whereas their absolute abundance quantitatively predicts community biomass under both ambient and altered environmental conditions, as expected mathematically. These results are robust to the type of abundance measure used. Three types of simulated data further show the generality of these results. Our integrative framework, arising from a few dominant species and mathematical properties of species abundance distributions, fills a persistent gap in our ability to predict community richness and biomass under ambient and anthropogenically altered conditions.

U2 - 10.1038/s41559-025-02701-y

DO - 10.1038/s41559-025-02701-y

M3 - Journal article

JO - Nature Ecology and Evolution

JF - Nature Ecology and Evolution

SN - 2397-334X

ER -