Climate extremes are on the rise. Impacts of extreme climate and weather
events on ecosystem services and ultimately human well-being can be
partially attenuated by the organismic, structural, and functional
diversity of the affected land surface. However, the ongoing
transformation of terrestrial ecosystems through intensified
exploitation and management may put this buffering capacity at risk.
Here, we summarise the evidence that reductions in biodiversity can
destabilise the functioning of ecosystems facing climate extremes. We
then explore if impaired ecosystem functioning could, in turn,
exacerbate climate extremes. We argue that only a comprehensive
approach, incorporating both ecological and hydrometeorological
perspectives, enables to understand and predict the entire feedback
system between altered biodiversity and climate extremes. This ambition,
however, requires a reformulation of current research priorities to
emphasise the bidirectional effects that link ecology and atmospheric
processes.