No.6 Biodiversity and water nature09904外文学习材料.pdfVIP

LETTER doi:10.1038/nature09904 Biodiversity improves water quality through niche partitioning Bradley J. Cardinale1 Excessive nutrient loading of water bodies is a leading cause of role of niche differences among species in regulating nutrient uptake water pollution worldwide1,2, and controlling nutrient levels in has rarely been measured directly6,12,22. Instead, effects of niche differ- watersheds is a primary objective of most environmental policy3. ences on nutrient uptake either have been assumed to occur based on Over the past two decades, much research has shown that ecosys- theoretical arguments20,23 or have been inferred from post hoc statist- tems with more species are more efficient at removing nutrients ical analyses of experiments that have been unable to differentiate from soil and water than are ecosystems with fewer species4–7. This among specific biological mechanisms24. Because of the lack of direct has led some to suggest that conservation of biodiversity might be a evidence confirming a biological mechanism, there has been consid- useful tool for managing nutrient uptake and storage7–10, but this erable debate about why diverse ecosystems tend to be more efficient at 10–12 suggestion has been controversial, in part because the specific bio- sequestering dissolved nutrients . logical mechanisms by which species diversity influences nutrient Here I present the results of a novel experiment in which I directly uptake have not been identified10–12. Here I use