Evaluating the relative strengths of biotic versus abiotic controls on ecosystem processes

Abstract There is no doubt that the rates of ecosystem processes and the resulting properties and structure of ecosystems are influenced both by biotic factors, including species properties and interactions among multiple species, and by abiotic factors, such as climate, geology, and soils. The critical issue (and the focus of the debate about diversity and ecosystem function) is the relative contribution of each of these general factors to any particular ecosystem process, under any particular conditions, and at any particular scale.