1. BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING: THE EMERGENCE OF A SYNTHETIC FRAMEWORK; 2. The debate on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; 3. PLANT DIVERSITY AND COMPOSITION: EFFECTS ON PRODUCTIVITY AND NUTRIENT DYNAMICS OF EXPERIMENTAL GRASSLANDS; 4. Biodiversity manipulation experiments: studies replicated at multiple sites; 5. Evaluating the relative strengths of biotic versus abiotic controls of ecosystem processes; 6. The design and analysis of biodiversity experiments; 7. A NEW LOOK AT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STABILITY AND DIVERSITY; 8. Do species interactions buffer environmental variation (in theory)?; 9. Biodiversity and stability in soil ecosystems: patterns, processes and the effects of disturbance; 10. Neighbourhood-scale effects of species diversity on biological invasions and their relation to community patterns; 11. CONTRIBUTIONS OF AQUATIC MODEL SYSTEMS TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING; 12. How can marine ecology contribute to the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning debate?; 13. Multitrophic dynamics and ecosystem processes; 14. Biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and the aboveground-belowground linkages; 15. Biodiversity and ecosystem function in soil decomposer food webs; 16. The critical role of plant-microbe interactions on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: arbuscular mycorrhizal associations as an example; 17. SPECIES DIVERSITY, FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING; 18. Slippin' and slidin' between the scales: the scaling components of the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relations; 19. Effect of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning in managed ecosystems; 20. PERSPECTIVES AND CHALLENGES