Biodiversity and ecosystem services: think functional!

During the last years, several studies and reviews have considered the relation between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning or the provision of ecosystem services. Many studies found that plant functional traits and plant functional diversity (FD) are key drivers in this relation in terrestrial ecosystems. Researchers used different methods to obtain a gradient in plant FD to examine the effect on ecosystem services, going from observational studies of natural communities to synthetic assemblages. Furthermore, different methods exist to quantify plant FD going from simple functional trait richness to indices, distance-based frameworks and the division into FD components. In the AgricultureIsLife project, we set up a field experiment aiming to examine the biodiversity – ecosystem service relation in agricultural context. The experiment consists of perennial wildflower strips with different plant functional diversities in an arable field with conventional crop production. The wildflower strips were sown as synthetic assemblages but are subject to natural succession during the following years. We monitor the evolution of FD from the sowing to the establishment of a typical wildflower strip using Rhao’s quadratic entropy index to quantify FD. In addition, the flower strips will be monitored for four ecosystem services they are expected to provide: pollination, pest control, biodiversity support and provision of valuable compounds.