Anthropogenic pressures on agricultural soils are known to alter the properties of soil food webs, which may affect ecosystem functions and the capacity to deliver services.
Changes in crust composition may affect ecosystem functioning by, for example, reducing soil stability (Lalley and Viles 2008), nitrogenase activity (Yeager et al. 2004), and chlorophyll content (Belnap 1993; Rychert 2002).
Our study shows that, even in systems where fragmented landscapes still maintain high species diversity, functional diversity can be altered in human altered habitats, which may affect ecosystem processes like productivity, nutrient cycling, and energy flows.
Recovery can also be difficult to define; even if hard coral cover returns to pre-bleaching levels, changes in the community composition and age structure may affect ecosystem function and the diversity of reef organisms [7] [10].
Finally, direct toxicity is only one way that Bt crops may affect ecosystem services provided by NTOs.
These regions would accordingly have little to no black bear-driven canopy disturbance, and it is unknown how this may affect ecosystem function and biodiversity among regions with or without black bears.
