Biodiversity has long been used as a justification for the preservation of species and habitat, yet environmentalists and researchers alike have had a difficult time explaining why.
Some researchers now believe they have found the answer.
A research team from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory claim that biodiversity is an important factor regulating how ecosystems will respond to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, a component in global warming. The team of investigators, led by Peter Reich of the University of Minnesota, found that more diverse plant ecosystems are better able to absorb carbon dioxide and nitrogen, both of which are on the rise due to human activities and industrial processes. The more of a mix of species, the better job they do at absorbing these greenhouse gases. The experiment, called BioCON, is the first field study to test the theory that plant species diversity influences responses to elevated CO2 and nitrogen levels in the ecosystem. The study was performed in a scientifically controlled grassland environment at the Cedar Creek Natural History Area of the University of Minnesota using free air CO2 enrichment, or FACE, technology.