Community Ecology
Volume/Issue:
Volume 9: Issue 1
Measuring ecosystem function: consequences arising from variation in biomass-productivity relationships
Authors:
C. terHorst Florida State University Department of Biological Science Tallahassee FL 32309-1100 USA

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P. Munguia Florida State University Department of Biological Science Tallahassee FL 32309-1100 USA

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Pages:
39–44
Online Publication Date:
28 Jul 2008
Publication Date:
01 Jun 2008
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/comec.9.2008.1.5
Keywords:
Seagrass; Spatial scale; Thalassia testudinum
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Species diversity loss is expected to alter ecosystem function, but previous work has demonstrated inconsistent relationships between these two factors. Productivity is the most common measure of ecosystem function, but given the difficulty in measuring productivity, standing biomass or change in biomass are frequently used as proxy measures. A review of the recent ecosystem-function literature revealed that 93% of studies measure productivity as biomass, thereby assuming a strong positive relationship between these two variables. We tested this assumption by measuring biomass and productivity in seagrass beds in the Gulf of Mexico. We found that the relationship between standing biomass and productivity could be positive or negative, depending on site. Change in biomass over months inconsistently underestimated short-term productivity. The relationship between biomass and productivity may depend on plant age, successional stage, or site-specific rates of tissue loss to herbivory, senescence, or disturbance. Our results suggest that if biomass continues to be used as a measure of productivity without justification, highly productive communities that typically show little change in biomass, such as healthy climax communities, will not be interpreted as such. The conflicting results of previous studies investigating the relationship between diversity and productivity may be due to differences in the inherently variable relationship between biomass and productivity at different sites and scales.

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Cover Community Ecology
Community Ecology An Interdisciplinary Journal Reporting Progress in Community and Population Studies
Print ISSN:
1585-8553
Online ISSN:
1588-2756

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Community Ecology
Language English
Size A4
Year of
Foundation		 2000
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 3
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
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Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245
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Springer Nature Switzerland AG
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Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
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ISSN 1585-8553 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2756 (Online)

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