Research progress of Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Experiment China Platform (BEF-China)

Abstract

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF) and the underlying mechanisms have been a hot issue in ecological research. Whereas many BEF studies have focused on grassland ecosystems, relatively few have been conducted in forest ecosystems which account for a large proportion of primary production in the terrestrial ecosystem. Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Experiment China Platform (BEF-China) contains the most tree species with the highest level of diversity in subtropical forests. In this review, we first summarized research progress in BEF-China, and then gave suggestions for future BEF research. The research based on BEF-China mainly focused on the impact of biodiversity on multi-ecosystem functioning, e.g. productivity, nutrient cycling and multi-trophic interaction. We suggest that future studies in BEF-China should strengthen the application of new techniques such as high-throughout sequencing and remote sensing, and continue research on multi-dimensions, multi-components, multi-ecosystem functions, and multi-scales in BEF study. The research progress of BEF-China can help in better understanding the BEF relationships in forest ecosystem, and provide a scientific support for biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration.

Keywords

• biodiversity
• ecosystem functioning
• bef-china
• subtropical forest
• research summary