Like many wetlands worldwide, Great Salt Lake (GSL) wetlands have been declining. Yet, little is known about the ecosystem functions provided by the different GSL wetland plant species. This knowledge gap hinders predictions of the effects of species loss and restoration practices on ecosystem functioning. To better understand how the loss of different habitat types affects the provisioning of ecosystem functions, we quantified eight functions and multifunctionality (the support of multiple functions simultaneously) across seven dominant GSL wetland habitat types. Habitats varied greatly in their capacity to perform functions. However, no single habitat type supported all eight functions even at 20% of the maximum value for each individual function. We found that native plants Typha latifolia and Schoenoplectus acutus and invasive Phragmites australis had the highest levels of multifunctionality. Although these three species were able to support more functions, we found that a diversity of habitats are required to maintain the breadth of ecosystem functions examined. This study supports the idea that habitat heterogeneity is critical in supporting a multifunctional environment, and that habitat homogenization may cause a reduction in functioning provided by GSL wetlands.

像世界上许多湿地一样，大盐湖（GSL）湿地正在减少。然而，对于不同的GSL湿地植物物种所提供的生态系统功能知之甚少。这种知识差距阻碍了对物种丧失和恢复做法对生态系统功能的影响的预测。为了更好地了解不同生境类型的丧失如何影响生态系统功能的提供，我们对GSL七个主要湿地生境类型中的八种功能和多功能性（同时支持多种功能）进行了量化。生境履行职能的能力差异很大。但是，没有哪一种栖息地类型支持所有八种功能，即使每种功能的最大值都只有其最大值的20％。我们发现本地植物香蒲和Acutusoplectus和侵入性Phragmites australis具有最高水平的多功能性。尽管这三个物种能够支持更多功能，但我们发现需要多种栖息地来维持所检查的生态系统功能的广度。这项研究支持以下观点：栖息地异质性在支持多功能环境中至关重要，并且栖息地均质化可能导致GSL湿地的功能降低。