On average, plants contain less than half a gram of carbon per square centimetre. Yet this thin veneer of living matter, a sort of 'green slime' sandwiched between a 100-km-deep lithosphere and a 100-km-high atmosphere, manages to cycle 60 giga-tonnes (60 X 10~(15) g) of carbon per year between the biosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere. Clearly, the Earth's biota has a staggering capability to affect our environment. But this perspective overlooks a critical feature of plant life; this green slime consists of more than a quarter of a million species. What, if any, is the role of such extraordinary diversity? Is it important to the rates of ecosystem processes? Is it important to the stability of ecosystems? We must answer these questions if we are to understand how widespread losses in biodiversity are likely to affect ecosystem properties and the services they provide. A rapidly growing body of ecological research deals with this issue, and considerable excitement and controversy surround its findings. However, on page 691 Sankaran and McNaughton present results from a very different kind of study that challenges both the nature and the direction of this new field.
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机译：平均而言，植物每平方厘米的碳含量不到半克。然而，这种薄薄的生物单板，夹在深达100公里的岩石圈和高100公里的大气之间的一种“绿色泥”，设法循环了60吉吨（60 X 10〜（15）g）生物圈，岩石圈和大气之间每年的碳排放量。显然，地球的生物群具有惊人的能力来影响我们的环境。但是这种观点忽视了植物生命的关键特征。这种绿色的粘液由超过百万分之一的物种组成。这种非同寻常的多样性有什么作用（如果有的话）？这对生态系统过程的速率重要吗？这对生态系统的稳定性重要吗？如果我们要了解生物多样性的广泛丧失可能如何影响生态系统特性及其提供的服务，就必须回答这些问题。迅速发展的生态学研究机构致力于解决这一问题，其研究结果引起了极大的兴奋和争议。但是，在第691页上，Sankaran和McNaughton提出了另一种截然不同的研究结果，这些研究挑战了这一新领域的性质和方向。
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