摘要
Worldwide,forests provide habitat for a large diversity of plants,animals and microbes.At the same time,forest ecosystems are essential providers of multiple ecosystem services important for human well-being.However,the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has only been little researched in forests and therefore its role for the functioning of forest ecosystems and their services is not yet understood.If results from comparable studies in other ecosystems are considered(e.g.Balvanera et al.2006),it is conceivable that diverse forests would,for example,grow faster,produce more biomass,store more carbon and better maintain soil fertility and plant-insect interactions and functional stability than less diverse forests or monoculture tree plantations.The hypothesis that biodiversity increases and stabilizes interactions and functions is the common theme of the papers in the present issue of the Journal of Plant Ecology.
