Question

Stability of a community depends on its species richness. Write how did David Tilman show this experimentally.

Answer 1

David Tilman showed experimentally that the stability of a community depends on its species richness through long-term ecosystem experiments using outdoor plots. He found that plots with more species exhibited less year-to-year variation in total biomass, indicating greater stability. Additionally, increased species diversity in these plots contributed to higher productivity. This demonstrated a direct positive relationship between species richness and ecosystem stability and functioning.