Selection is more important than complementarity in global grasslands

Selection is more important than complementarity in global grasslands | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Biological Sciences - Article Selection is more important than complementarity in global grasslands Yonghui Wang, Wenhong Ma, Bailing Miao, Bin Zhang, Huping Yang, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5288985/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract A central question concerning biodiversity loss is how it impacts ecosystem functions and services. Experiments manipulating species diversity often show the complementarity effect, stemming from niche differentiation or facilitation among species, contributes dominantly to ecosystem functions. The selection effect, resulting from the increased likelihood of species-diverse communities containing high-performance species, plays a limited role. However, the applicability of these findings to natural ecosystems remains unclear. By partitioning the two effects and further separating them into dominant-species and subordinate-species components, we found that the selection effect was significant in enhancing natural grassland functions (plant biomass production and community coverage), and better predicted functions than the complementarity effect. In natural grasslands, the selection effect was largely driven by dominant species and independent from community-wide species diversity, while the complementarity effect was largely driven by subordinate species and positively associated with species diversity. Our results suggest that the selection effect may play a more important role in driving the functioning of natural ecosystems, which may be underestimated in biodiversity experiments. Biological sciences/Ecology/Community ecology Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology/Grassland ecology Ecosystem multi-functionality The Price equation Species-area relationship Mass-ratio hypothesis Neutral theory Community assembly Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files V02.12NEBEFExtendedData.docx Extended Data Table 1-2 and Extended Data Figure 1-6 V02.12NEBEFSupInfor.docx Supplementary Information for Selection is more important than complementarity in global grasslands Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5288985","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Biological Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":376754190,"identity":"0ecc2c78-7802-4280-8da6-3cb3a9952ffe","order_by":0,"name":"Yonghui 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Experiments manipulating species diversity often show the complementarity effect, stemming from niche differentiation or facilitation among species, contributes dominantly to ecosystem functions. The selection effect, resulting from the increased likelihood of species-diverse communities containing high-performance species, plays a limited role. However, the applicability of these findings to natural ecosystems remains unclear. By partitioning the two effects and further separating them into dominant-species and subordinate-species components, we found that the selection effect was significant in enhancing natural grassland functions (plant biomass production and community coverage), and better predicted functions than the complementarity effect. 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