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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Nature Ecology & Evolution

Biodiversity safeguards ecosystem services and functions worldwide

  • Emma R. Moffett1,2
  • Joel H. Gayford1,3
  • Lexi Chen1
  • Olivia F. Morris1
  • Yuming Shi1
  • Lucy Somekh1
  • Nicole Stasik1
  • Andy Purvis1,4
  • Guy Woodward1
  • William D. Pearse1,5
5 affiliations
  1. 1The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Berkshire, UK
  2. 2Department of Geography, King’s College London, London, UK
  3. 3Department of Marine Biology and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland Australia
  4. 4Biodiversity Futures Lab, Natural History Museum, London, UK
  5. 5Alan Turing Institute, British Library, London, UK
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Abstract

Biodiversity loss threatens ecosystem services on which humanity depends, yet the strength, form and context-dependency of biodiversity–ecosystem service and biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships remain poorly quantified. Here we synthesize 423 studies to determine how biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning and service delivery. We show that regulating services, including water quality and pollination, often exhibit linear relationships, suggesting an additive role for diversity. While biodiversity enhances most functions and services, our effect-size analysis shows that oceanic ‘blue carbon’ sequestration is exceptionally sensitive, revealing how critical marine biodiversity is for climate mitigation. Conversely, services such as hazard regulation appear relatively insensitive to biodiversity, instead depending on a few functionally unique foundational species whose persistence nonetheless is interdependent on the wider community. Our new synthesis enables the forecasting of impacts, for example, that biodiversity loss will reduce pest regulation in countries experiencing population growth and intensive development, and it also highlights how ecosystem services might be used to anticipate future problems.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{moffett2026biodiversity,
  title = {{Biodiversity safeguards ecosystem services and functions worldwide}},
  author = {Emma R. Moffett and Joel H. Gayford and Lexi Chen and Olivia F. Morris and Yuming Shi and Lucy Somekh and Nicole Stasik and Andy Purvis and Guy Woodward and William D. Pearse},
  journal = {Nature Ecology \& Evolution},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1038/s41559-026-03200-4},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-03200-4},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Biodiversity safeguards ecosystem services and functions worldwide
AU  - Emma R. Moffett
AU  - Joel H. Gayford
AU  - Lexi Chen
AU  - Olivia F. Morris
AU  - Yuming Shi
AU  - Lucy Somekh
AU  - Nicole Stasik
AU  - Andy Purvis
AU  - Guy Woodward
AU  - William D. Pearse
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
JO  - Nature Ecology & Evolution
DO  - 10.1038/s41559-026-03200-4
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-03200-4
AB  - Biodiversity loss threatens ecosystem services on which humanity depends, yet the strength, form and context-dependency of biodiversity–ecosystem service and biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships remain poorly quantified. Here we synthesize 423 studies to determine how biodiversity affects ecosystem functioning and service delivery. We show that regulating services, including water quality and pollination, often exhibit linear relationships, suggesting an additive role for diversity. While biodiversity enhances most functions and services, our effect-size analysis shows that oceanic ‘blue carbon’ sequestration is exceptionally sensitive, revealing how critical marine biodiversity is for climate mitigation. Conversely, services such as hazard regulation appear relatively insensitive to biodiversity, instead depending on a few functionally unique foundational species whose persistence nonetheless is interdependent on the wider community. Our new synthesis enables the forecasting of impacts, for example, that biodiversity loss will reduce pest regulation in countries experiencing population growth and intensive development, and it also highlights how ecosystem services might be used to anticipate future problems.
SN  - 2397-334X
ER  -