Biodiversity and Climate Extremes: Known Interactions and Research Gaps
Miguel D. Mahecha, Ana Bastos, Friedrich J. Bohn, Nico Eisenhauer, Hannes Feilhauer, Thomas Hickler, Heike Kalesse‐Los, Mirco Migliavacca, Friederike E. L. Otto, Jian Peng, Sebastian Sippel, Ina Tegen, Alexandra Weigelt, Manfred Wendisch, Christian Wirth, Djamil Al‐Halbouni, Hartwig Deneke, Daniel Doktor, Susanne Dunker, Grégory Duveiller, André Ehrlich, Andreas Foth, Almudena García‐García, Carlos A. Guerra, Claudia Guimarães‐Steinicke, Henrik Hartmann, Silvia Henning, Hartmut Herrmann, Pin-hsin Hu, Chaonan Ji, Teja Kattenborn, Nina Kolleck, Marlene Kretschmer, Ingolf Kühn, Marie Luise Luttkus, Maximilian Maahn, Milena Mönks, Karin Mora, Mira L. Pöhlker, Markus Reichstein, Nadja Rüger, Beatriz Sánchez‐Parra, Michael Schäfer, Frank Stratmann, Matthias Tesche, Birgit Wehner, Sebastian Wieneke, Alexander J. Winkler, Sophie Wolf, Sönke Zaehle, Jakob Zscheischler, Johannes Quaas
Abstract
Abstract Climate extremes are on the rise. Impacts of extreme climate and weather events on ecosystem services and ultimately human well‐being can be partially attenuated by the organismic, structural, and functional diversity of the affected land surface. However, the ongoing transformation of terrestrial ecosystems through intensified exploitation and management may put this buffering capacity at risk. Here, we summarize the evidence that reductions in biodiversity can destabilize the functioning of ecosystems facing climate extremes. We then explore if impaired ecosystem functioning could, in turn, exacerbate climate extremes. We argue that only a comprehensive approach, incorporating both ecological and hydrometeorological perspectives, enables us to understand and predict the entire feedback system between altered biodiversity and climate extremes. This ambition, however, requires a reformulation of current research priorities to emphasize the bidirectional effects that link ecology and atmospheric processes.