One of the most prominent forms of environmental change is the loss of biological diversity – reductions in the variety of microbes, plants, and animals that have evolved over the last 3.6 billion years on the planet. Prior research have well examined biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning under experimental settings with small spatial and temporal scales. It remains less clear how biodiversity loss may affect ecosystem services at scales (e.g., watersheds or landscapes) relevant for policy and management. Invasion of alien species is an another key driver of environmental change that affects species, habitats, ecosystem processes and ultimately ecosystem services. So far there is a vast literature on ecological consequences and mechanisms of invasion, addressing explicit linkages between invasive species and ecosystem services has only become a recent focus.
(1) Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
While remarkable progress has been made towards understanding effects and mechanisms of biodiversity on ecosystem function, less is focused on ecosystem services and how landscape pattern could mediate their linkages across scales. To address these knowledge gaps, I led a review paper on how landscape pattern, context, connectivity, and scale alter biodiversity-dependent ecosystem services (Qiu, Current Landscape Ecology Reports). We have also developed scaling relationships between biodiversity and productivity by synthesizing 374 experimental studies (Qiu and Cardinale, Ecology). Continued work includes large-scale quantitative analyses on how biodiversity effects scale up to affect other ecosystem services (e.g., water quality, carbon storage) and social-economic outcomes. More recently, I am guest-editing a Special Issue in Landscape Ecology that aims to brings together a collection of empirical studies across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems to reveal biodiversity effects on ecosystem services in real landscapes. These efforts will demonstrate social-ecological consequences of biodiversity loss and inform the scales over which management efforts are needed to reach conservation and restoration goals.
FIGURE 1. (A) Schematic diagram of scaling-up from experiments to landscapes across space and time dimensions. (B) Alternative hypotheses regarding biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning or services in relation to changing scales.
FIGURE 2. Summary of log response ratios, LRnet, showing plant diversity effects on biomass production: (A) Rank from the largest to smallest LRnet. Error bars are 95% confidence intervals, and insert histogram shows LRnet distribution (N=374); (B) Scatterplot showing the standardized spatial and temporal scales of all data included in the analysis (Qiu and Cardinale 2020).
(2) Biological Invasion and Ecosystem services
Invasion of alien species is another key driver of global change. Despite the large literature on invasion ecology, less is known about explicit linkages with ecosystem services. To that end, I completed a global synthesis on biological invasion effects on climate regulation service (Qiu, Global Ecology and Biogeography). We are currently expanding this research to a full range of ecosystem services and synthesizing effects across multiple taxa, ecosystems, and geographic gradients. Besides synthesis, we also conducted a mesocosm experiment revealing that effects of invasive Asian jumping worms in the Midwest are more pronounced than the better-studied European earthworms in North America (Qiu and Turner, Biological Invasions). More recently, my students and I are examining how invasive apple snail (Pomacea maculata) alters plant and microbial communities, water quality and biogeochemical-related ecosystem services in wetlands. We are also collaborating with microbial and evolutionary biologists, and plant ecologists to address interactive effects of climate change (drought) and invasion (Imperata cylindrica) in Florida on plant and microbial communities, carbon and nitrogen cycling, and associated ecosystem services.
FIGURE 3. Global distributions of case studies included in the meta-analysis. Solid triangle, diamond, and circle symbols indicate studies on N2O emissions, CH4 emissions, and ecosystem C content, respectively (Qiu 2015).
FIGURE 4. Mesocosm experiment with random block design to investigate effects of invasive Asian jumping worms on forest and prairie soil cores (Left), during which Qiu was monitoring soil moisture and temperatures (Right).
FIGURE 5. Mesocosm experiment with random block design (A) to investigate interactive effects of invasive apple snails and land management on subtropical wetlands, and revealed direct (solid arrows) and cascading (dashed arrows) effects by snails on soil, plant, and water responses (O'Neil et al. 2023).
Sample Publications
Wang, H., Lopez-Pujol, J., Meyerson, L.A., Qiu, J., Wang, X., Ouyang, Z. 2011. Biological invasions in rapidly urbanizing areas: A case study of Beijing, China. Biodiversity and Conservation 20 (11): 2483-2509. (pdf)
Qiu, J. 2015. A global synthesis of the effects of biological invasions on greenhouse gas emissions. Global Ecology and Biogeography 24 (11): 1351-1362. (pdf)
Qiu, J., Turner, M.G. 2016. Effects of non-native Asian earthworm invasion on temperate forest and prairie soils in the Midwestern US. Biological Invasions 19: 73-88 (pdf)
Zhang, B., Yuan, Y., Shu, L., Grosholz, E., Guo, Y., Hasting, A., Cuda, J.P., Zhang, J., Zhai, L., Qiu, J. 2021. Scaling up experimental stress responses of grass invasion to predictions of continental-level range suitability. Ecology 102: e03417. (pdf)
O’Neil, C., Guo, Y., Pierre, S., Boughton, E., Qiu, J. (In revision) Ecological consequences of an invasive apple snail (Pomacea maculata) on subtropical seasonal wetlands. Science of the Total Environment 864: 160939. (pdf)