Effects of plant functional groups on vegetation dynamics and ecosystem properties.(InfoNorth) From: Arctic | Date: December 1, 2006| Author: McLaren, Jennie R. | COPYRIGHT 2006 Arctic Institute of North America of the University of Calgary. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY has likely been the most dramatic change humans have imposed on ecosystems in the past century (Chapin et al., 2000): the global extinction rate is currently between 100 and 1000 times faster than pre-human extinction levels (Pimm et al., 1995). There is growing concern that this species loss will have important effects on ecosystem functioning: that species-poor ecosystems may perform differently, or less efficiently than the species-rich systems from which th...