Approximately 25 years ago, ecologists became increasingly interested in the question of
whether ongoing biodiversity loss matters for the functioning of ecosystems. As such, a new …

Biological insurance theory predicts that, in a variable environment, aggregate ecosystem
properties will vary less in more diverse communities because declines in the performance …

Increasing global food demand, low grain reserves and climate change threaten the stability
of food systems on national to global scales,,,–. Policies to increase yields, irrigation and …

Insects provide critical ecosystem services such as biological pest control, in which natural
enemies (NE) regulate the populations of crop-feeding herbivores (H). While H-NE …

Under global change, how biological diversity and ecosystem services are maintained in
time is a fundamental question. Ecologists have long argued about multiple mechanisms by …

Biodiversity enhances many of nature's benefits to people, including the regulation of
climate and the production of wood in forests, livestock forage in grasslands and fish in …

Losses and gains in species diversity affect ecological stability,,,,,–and the sustainability of
ecosystem functions and services,,,,–. Experiments and models have revealed positive …

Recent studies have revealed many potential benefits of increasing plant diversity in natural
ecosystems, as well as in agroecosystems and production forests. Plant diversity potentially …

It remains unclear whether biodiversity buffers ecosystems against climate extremes, which
are becoming increasingly frequent worldwide. Early results suggested that the ecosystem …

Agricultural intensification increased crop productivity but simplified production with lower
diversity of cropping systems, higher genetic uniformity, and a higher uniformity of …