Healthy ecosystems include many species (high richness) with similar abundances (high evenness). Thus, both aspects of biodiversity are worthy of conservation. Simultaneously conserving richness and evenness might be difficult, however, if, for example, the restoration of previously absent species to low densities brings a cost in reduced evenness. Using meta-analysis, we searched for benefits ...

Abbreviations: C, carbon; N, nitrogen; BD, soil bulk d mass; BGB, belowground biomass; SL, semi-decomposit carbon pool;Np, soil nitrogenpool; SOC, soil organic carbo content; FG, fenced grassland with grazing exclusion; GG index; H, Shannon–Wiener diversity index; E, Evenness in ⁎ Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Soil E the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservati Y...

Species richness and evenness are the two major components of biodiversity, but the way in which they are interrelated is a subject of contention. We found a negative relationship between the two variables for bird communities at 92 woodland sites across Australia and sought an explanation. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) was by far the best predictor of species richness. When AET was controlle...

Using donor-controlled, bottom-up equations to describe network collapse we systematically investigate the impact each species has on the survival or extinction of other species. Short of extinction, one can determine the integrated losses experienced by the ecosystem. These losses are aggregated into system level indicators, such as entropy, average gain/loss, average time to extinction, etc. ...

Biodiversity is declining worldwide from reductions in both species richness and evenness. Field experiments have shown that primary productivity is often reduced when richness of plant species is lowered. However, experiments testing richness effects have used evenness levels that are much higher than normally encountered in plant communities and have been based on the assumption that species ...