Funded by German Research Foundation. Grant Number: DFG FOR 891/1 and 2 National Natural Science Foundation of China. Grant Numbers: NSFC 30710103907, 30930005, 31170457 , 31210103910 Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Sino-German Centre for Research Promotion in BeijingPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Assmann, Thorsten

Bauhus, Juergen

Both, Sabine

Bruelheide, Helge

Buscot, Francois

Chen, Xiao-Yong

Ding, Bingyang

Durka, Walter

Erfmeier, Alexandra

Fischer, Markus

Guo, Dali

Guo, Liang-Dong

Gutknecht, Jessica L. M.

Haerdtle, Werner

He, Jin-Sheng

Klein, Alexandra-Maria

Kuehn, Peter

Liang, Yu

Liu, Xiaojuan

Ma, Keping

Michalski, Stefan

Nadrowski, Karin

Niklaus, Pascal A.

Pei, Kequan

Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael

Schmid, Bernhard

Scholten, Thomas

Schuldt, Andreas

Seidler, Gunnar

Trogisch, Stefan

von Oheimb, Goddert

Welk, Erik

Wirth, Christian

Wubet, Tesfaye

Yang, Xuefei

Yu, Mingjian

Zhang, Shouren

Zhou, Hongzhang

Methods in Ecology and Evolution

English

Bauhus, Jürgen

Buscot, François

Chen, Xiao‐Yong

Guo, Liang‐Dong

Härdtle, Werner

He, Jin‐Sheng

Klein, Alexandra‐Maria

Kühn, Peter

Scherer‐Lorenzen, Michael

Oheimb, Goddert

GRO.publications (Univ. Göttingen)

Designing forest biodiversity experiments: general considerations illustrated by a new large experiment in subtropical            C            hina

Helge Bruelheide

Karin Nadrowski

Thorsten Assmann

Jürgen Bauhus

Sabine Both

François Buscot

Xiao‐Yong Chen

Bingyang Ding

Walter Durka

Alexandra Erfmeier

Jessica L. M. Gutknecht

Dali Guo

Liang‐Dong Guo

Werner Härdtle

Jin‐Sheng He

Alexandra‐Maria Klein

Peter Kühn

Yu Liang

Xiaojuan Liu

Stefan Michalski

Pascal A. Niklaus

Kequan Pei

Michael Scherer‐Lorenzen

Thomas Scholten

Andreas Schuldt

Gunnar Seidler

Stefan Trogisch

Goddert Oheimb

Erik Welk

Christian Wirth

Tesfaye Wubet

Xuefei Yang

Mingjian Yu

Shouren Zhang

Hongzhang Zhou

Markus Fischer

Keping Ma

Bernhard Schmid

Crossref

Designing forest biodiversity experiments: general considerations illustrated by a new large experiment in subtropical
            <scp>C</scp>
            hina

1. Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments address ecosystem-level consequences of species loss by comparing communities of high species richness with communities from which species have been gradually eliminated. BEF experiments originally started with microcosms in the laboratory and with grassland ecosystems. A new frontier in experimental BEF research is manipulating tree diversity in forest ecosystems, compelling researchers to think big and comprehensively.    2. We present and discuss some of the major issues to be considered in the design of BEF experiments with trees and illustrate these with a new forest biodiversity experiment established in subtropical China (Xingangshan, Jiangxi Province) in 2009/2010. Using a pool of 40 tree species, extinction scenarios were simulated with tree richness levels of 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 species on a total of 566 plots of 25.8x25.8m each.    3. The goal of this experiment is to estimate effects of tree and shrub species richness on carbon storage and soil erosion; therefore, the experiment was established on sloped terrain. The following important design choices were made: (i) establishing many small rather than fewer larger plots, (ii) using high planting density and random mixing of species rather than lower planting density and patchwise mixing of species, (iii) establishing a map of the initial ecoscape&apos; to characterize site heterogeneity before the onset of biodiversity effects and (iv) manipulating tree species richness not only in random but also in trait-oriented extinction scenarios.    4. Data management and analysis are particularly challenging in BEF experiments with their hierarchical designs nesting individuals within-species populations within plots within-species compositions. Statistical analysis best proceeds by partitioning these random terms into fixed-term contrasts, for example, species composition into contrasts for species richness and the presence of particular functional groups, which can then be tested against the remaining random variation among compositions.    5. We conclude that forest BEF experiments provide exciting and timely research options. They especially require careful thinking to allow multiple disciplines to measure and analyse data jointly and effectively. Achieving specific research goals and synergy with previous experiments involves trade-offs between different designs and requires manifold design decisions.http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000330789600009&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701EcologySCI(E)31ARTICLEhelge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de174-89

Institutional Repository of Peking University

DalSpace

Designing forest biodiversity experiments: general considerations   illustrated by a new large experiment in subtropical China

1. Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments address ecosystem-level consequences of species loss by comparing communities of high species richness with communities from which species have been gradually eliminated. BEF experiments originally started with microcosms in the laboratory and with grassland ecosystems. A new frontier in experimental BEF research is manipulating tree diversity in forest ecosystems, compelling researchers to think big and comprehensively. 2. We present and discuss some of the major issues to be considered in the design of BEF experiments with trees and illustrate these with a new forest biodiversity experiment established in subtropical China (Xingangshan, Jiangxi Province) in 2009/2010. Using a pool of 40 tree species, extinction scenarios were simulated with tree richness levels of 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 species on a total of 566 plots of 25.8x25.8m each. 3. The goal of this experiment is to estimate effects of tree and shrub species richness on carbon storage and soil erosion; therefore, the experiment was established on sloped terrain. The following important design choices were made: (i) establishing many small rather than fewer larger plots, (ii) using high planting density and random mixing of species rather than lower planting density and patchwise mixing of species, (iii) establishing a map of the initial ecoscape' to characterize site heterogeneity before the onset of biodiversity effects and (iv) manipulating tree species richness not only in random but also in trait-oriented extinction scenarios. 4. Data management and analysis are particularly challenging in BEF experiments with their hierarchical designs nesting individuals within-species populations within plots within-species compositions. Statistical analysis best proceeds by partitioning these random terms into fixed-term contrasts, for example, species composition into contrasts for species richness and the presence of particular functional groups, which can then be tested against the remaining random variation among compositions. 5. We conclude that forest BEF experiments provide exciting and timely research options. They especially require careful thinking to allow multiple disciplines to measure and analyse data jointly and effectively. Achieving specific research goals and synergy with previous experiments involves trade-offs between different designs and requires manifold design decisions

of Botany,Chinese Academy Of Sciences

Designing forest biodiversity experiments: general considerations illustrated by a new large experiment in subtropical China

Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments address ecosystem-level consequences of species loss by comparing communities of high species richness with communities from which species have been gradually eliminated. BEF experiments originally started with microcosms in the laboratory and with grassland ecosystems. A new frontier in experimental BEF research is manipulating tree diversity in forest ecosystems, compelling researchers to think big and comprehensively.

We present and discuss some of the major issues to be considered in the design of BEF experiments with trees and illustrate these with a new forest biodiversity experiment established in subtropical China (Xingangshan, Jiangxi Province) in 2009/2010. Using a pool of 40 tree species, extinction scenarios were simulated with tree richness levels of 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 species on a total of 566 plots of 25·8 × 25·8 m each.

The goal of this experiment is to estimate effects of tree and shrub species richness on carbon storage and soil erosion; therefore, the experiment was established on sloped terrain. The following important design choices were made: (i) establishing many small rather than fewer larger plots, (ii) using high planting density and random mixing of species rather than lower planting density and patchwise mixing of species, (iii) establishing a map of the initial ‘ecoscape’ to characterize site heterogeneity before the onset of biodiversity effects and (iv) manipulating tree species richness not only in random but also in trait-oriented extinction scenarios.

Data management and analysis are particularly challenging in BEF experiments with their hierarchical designs nesting individuals within-species populations within plots within-species compositions. Statistical analysis best proceeds by partitioning these random terms into fixed-term contrasts, for example, species composition into contrasts for species richness and the presence of particular functional groups, which can then be tested against the remaining random variation among compositions.

We conclude that forest BEF experiments provide exciting and timely research options. They especially require careful thinking to allow multiple disciplines to measure and analyse data jointly and effectively. Achieving specific research goals and synergy with previous experiments involves trade-offs between different designs and requires manifold design decisions

Gutknecht, Jessica L M

Niklaus, Pascal A

ZORA

Bern Open Repository and Information System (BORIS)

Funded by German Research Foundation. Grant Number: DFG FOR 891/1 and 2 National Natural Science Foundation of China. Grant Numbers: NSFC 30710103907, 30930005, 31170457 , 31210103910 Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Sino-German Centre for Research Promotion in BeijingPeer reviewe

Aberdeen University Research

Designing forest biodiversity experiments : general considerations illustrated by a new large experiment in subtropical China

http://boris.unibe.ch/44994/1/fischer_bruelheide.pdf

Designing forest biodiversity experiments : general considerations illustrated by a new large experiment in subtropical China

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