Analysis of diversity reduction experiments to address the ecosystem consequences of biodiversity loss

A diversity reduction working group will examine the relationship between species diversity and ecosystem functioning in a wide range of natural and managed ecosystems. We will evaluate the results of field experiments in which species diversity and composition of plants, animals, and/or microbes have been reduced and ecosystem processes have been measured. We propose two approaches: (1) a meta-analysis of the species-removal literature and (2) a synthesis of comparative measurements to be made in ongoing species-removal experiments in a diverse array of natural ecosystems.