The biodiversity-productivity relationship (BPR) is foundational to our understanding of the global extinction crisis and its impacts on ecosystem functioning. Understanding BPR is critical for the accurate valuation and effective conservation of biodiversity. Using ground-sourced data from 777,126 permanent plots, spanning 44 countries and most terrestrial biomes, we reveal a globally consistent positive concave-down BPR, showing that continued biodiversity loss would result in an accelerating decline in forest productivity worldwide. The value of biodiversity in maintaining commercial forest productivity alone—US$166 billion to 490 billion per year according to our estimation—is more than twice what it would cost to implement effective global conservation. This highlights the need for a worldwide reassessment of biodiversity values, forest management strategies, and conservation priorities.
Authors: Jingjing Liang, Thomas W. Crowther, Nicolas Picard, Susan Wiser, Mo Zhou, Giorgio Alberti, Ernst-Detlef Schulze, A. David McGuire, Fabio Bozzato, Hans Pretzsch, Sergio de-Miguel, Alain Paquette, Bruno Hérault, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Christopher B. Barrett, Henry B. Glick, Geerten M. Hengeveld, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Sebastian Pfautsch, Helder Viana, Alexander C. Vibrans, Christian Ammer, Peter Schall, David Verbyla, Nadja Tchebakova, Markus Fischer, James V. Watson, Han Y. H. Chen, Xiangdong Lei, Mart-Jan Schelhaas, Huicui Lu, Damiano Gianelle, Elena I. Parfenova, Christian Salas, Eungul Lee, Boknam Lee, Hyun Seok Kim, Helge Bruelheide, David A. Coomes, Daniel Piotto, Terry Sunderland, Bernhard Schmid, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Bonaventure Sonké, Rebecca Tavani, Jun Zhu, Susanne Brandl, Jordi Vayreda, Fumiaki Kitahara, Eric B. Searle, Victor J. Neldner, Michael R. Ngugi, Christopher Baraloto, Lorenzo Frizzera, Radomir Bałazy, Jacek Oleksyn, Tomasz Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, Olivier Bouriaud, Filippo Bussotti, Leena Finér, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Tommaso Jucker, Fernando Valladares, Andrzej M. Jagodzinski, Pablo L. Peri, Christelle Gonmadje, William Marthy, Timothy O’Brien, Emanuel H. Martin, Andrew R. Marshall, Francesco Rovero, Robert Bitariho, Pascal A. Niklaus, Patricia Alvarez-Loayza, Nurdin Chamuya, Renato Valencia, Frédéric Mortier, Verginia Wortel, Nestor L. Engone-Obiang, Leandro V. Ferreira, David E. Odeke, Rodolfo M. Vasquez, Simon L. Lewis, Peter B. Reich
