Biodiversity increases the resistance of ecosystem productivity to climate extremes
Diverse plots maintained 65% of normal productivity during severe drought
This paper directly addresses how biodiversity provides insurance against climate extremes - the core thesis of the chapter's biology section. The research demonstrates that diverse grasslands maintain productivity during drought years when monocultures collapse.
The chapter's vivid description of the 2012 Cedar Creek drought draws on this research: diverse plots produced 65% of normal productivity during severe drought while monoculture plots averaged 25%. The mechanism is response diversity - different species stepping forward as others retreat, maintaining function through species turnover.
This citation provides the empirical basis for the chapter's central claim that 'monocultures optimize for the present; diverse systems prepare for futures they cannot predict.'
Key Findings from Isbell et al. (2015)
- Diverse plots maintained 65% of normal productivity during severe drought
- Monoculture plots averaged only 25% of normal productivity during drought
- Response diversity - different species compensating for struggling ones - drove the effect
- Biodiversity provides insurance against unpredictable climate extremes
- The insurance effect is strongest during the most extreme events