How is biodiversity important for Ecosystem functioning?
Importance of biodiversity to the ecosystem: Ecologists believe that communities with more species tend to be more stable than those with fewer species, A stable community has the following attributes. (a) It shall not show too many variations in the year-to-year productivity. (b) It must be either resistant or resilient to seasonal disturbances. (c) It must be resistant also to invasion by alien species. David Tilman had shown through his ecology experiments using outdoor plots the following features. (a) The plots with more species showed less year-to-year variation in the total biomass. (b) Plots with increased diversity showed higher productivity. It is now realized that species richness and diversity are essential for ecosystem health as well as the survival of the human race on the earth.
