Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
Biotic Impoverishment Weakens While Biotic Enrichment Strengthens the Functioning of Natural Systems and the Services They Provide
All functions of ecological systems, across all scales in space and time, are governed by the biota present. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning is the discipline that focuses on the significance of the biota being diverse, not just abundant. That is, if, for a given volume of space on Earth, for a given biomass, if one were to alter the taxonomic, functional, phylogenetic, genetic, or other dimension of diversity of the biota occupying that volume, we ask if there would be a predictable change in function.
This question is surprisingly difficult to answer.
Publications
Google Scholar: Dr. Shahid Naeem | Dr. Matt Palmer
Naeem, S., Jackson, J., & Neelin, D. (2024). Let’s celebrate Earth Day as the Age of Open Science. Science Advances, 10(16), eadp6048.
Bruner, S. G., Palmer, M. I., Griffin, K. L., & Naeem, S. (2023). Planting design influences green infrastructure performance: plant species identity and complementarity in rain gardens. Ecological Applications, 33(7), e2902.
Heilpern, S. A., Sethi, S. A., Barthem, R. B., Batista, V. D. S., Doria, C. R., Duponchelle, F., ... & Flecker, A. S. (2022). Biodiversity underpins fisheries resilience to exploitation in the Amazon river basin. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 289(1976), 20220726.
Weeks, B. C., Naeem, S., Lasky, J. R., & Tobias, J. A. (2022). Diversity and extinction risk are inversely related at a global scale. Ecology Letters, 25(3), 697-707.
Naeem, S., Bruner, S. G., & Missirian, A. (2021). Environmental risk in an age of biotic impoverishment. Current Biology, 31(19), R1164-R1169.
Anujan, K., Heilpern, S. A., Prager, C. M., Weeks, B. C., & Naeem, S. (2021). Trophic complexity alters the diversity–multifunctionality relationship in experimental grassland mesocosms. Ecology and Evolution, 11(11), 6471-6479.
Heilpern, S. A., DeFries, R., Fiorella, K., Flecker, A., Sethi, S. A., Uriarte, M., & Naeem, S. (2021). Declining diversity of wild-caught species puts dietary nutrient supplies at risk. Science Advances, 7(22), eabf9967.
Heilpern, S. A., Fiorella, K., Cañas, C., Flecker, A. S., Moya, L., Naeem, S., ... & DeFries, R. (2021). Substitution of inland fisheries with aquaculture and chicken undermines human nutrition in the Peruvian Amazon. Nature Food, 2(3), 192-197.
Jain, M., Fishman, R., Mondal, P., Galford, G. L., Bhattarai, N., Naeem, S., ... & DeFries, R. S. (2021). Groundwater depletion will reduce cropping intensity in India. Science advances, 7(9), eabd2849.
Weeks, B. C., Naeem, S., Winger, B. M., & Cracraft, J. (2020). The relationship between morphology and behavior in mixed‐species flocks of island birds. Ecology and Evolution, 10(19), 10593-10606.
Heilpern, S. A., Anujan, K., Osuri, A., & Naeem, S. (2020). Positive correlations in species functional contributions drive the response of multifunctionality to biodiversity loss. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287(1924), 20192501.