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This study attempts to expand existing knowledge on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, by studying a four year old tropical tree plantation. The growth of trees coming from monocultures, three species mixtures and six species mixtures was compared. Through multivariate statistical analysis, the variation in tree productivity was partitioned into different components: variation explained by (1) species richness, (2) species identity and (3) the environment. Results reveal that the environment explains the largest portion of variability in tree growth. Moreover, of the small amount of variation explained by diversity, species identity is found to be twice as important then species richness. Of notable significance was the amount of variation explained by the interaction of diversity with the environment.