Research Topic

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning

Human modification of ecosystems across the world has probably triggered the sixth major biodiversity extinction crisis. Beyond the ethical issues associated with human impacts on the living world, ecologists have long emphasized the consequences for ecosystem functioning. Species diversity has functional consequences because the nature of the species present in assemblages determines ecosystem functions and services.

My research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning has aimed to integrate coexistence theory, evolutionary dynamics, and spatial scaling. I have focused on how the mechanisms of species coexistence, evolutionary dynamics, and regional processes affect the shape of biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships, using models, empirical datasets, and experimental approaches with microorganisms and plants.

Conceptual figure on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

Figure by Isabelle Gounand, adapted from Mouquet, Gounand and Gravel (2010), Biodiversite et fonctionnement des ecosystemes.

How Coexistence Mechanisms Shape the BEF

Evolving the BEF

Scaling Up the BEF

Other Research Topics