scholarly journals Is Phylogeny More Useful than Functional Traits for Assessing Diversity Patterns Under Community Assembly Processes?

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinshi Xu ◽  
Han Dang ◽  
Mao Wang ◽  
Yongfu Chai ◽  
Yaoxin Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Α Diversity

Phylogenetic and functional diversities and their relationship are important for understanding community assembly, which relates to forest sustainability. Thus, both diversities have been used in ecological studies evaluating community responses to environmental changes. However, it is unclear whether these diversity measures can uncover the actual community assembly processes. Herein, we examined their utility to assess such assembly processes by analyzing similarities in phylogenetic, functional, and taxonomic α- and β-diversities along an elevational gradient. Additionally, we examined the relationships among environment, phylogeny, and functional traits within the community. Based on our results, we evaluated whether phylogenetic or functional diversity could better reveal the actual community assembly processes. We found that taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional α-diversities were correlated with one another. Although the functional α-diversity showed a linear correlation with the elevational gradient, taxonomic and phylogenetic α-diversities showed unimodal patterns. Both phylogenetic and functional β-diversities correlated with taxonomic β-diversity, but there was no significant relationship between the former. Overall, our results evidenced that phylogenetic diversity and taxonomic diversity showed similar patterns, whereas functional diversity showed a relatively independent pattern, which may be due to limitations in the functional trait dimensions used in the present study. Although it is difficult to unravel whether the environment shapes phylogeny or functional traits within a community, phylogenetic diversity is a good proxy for assessing the assembly processes, whereas functional diversity may improve knowledge on the community by maximizing information about the functional trait dimensions.

Reef fish at a remote tropical island (Principe Island, Gulf of Guinea): disentangling taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity patterns with depth

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 395 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Tuya ◽  
A. Herrero-Barrencua ◽  
N. E. Bosch ◽  
A. D. Abreu ◽  
R. Haroun
Keyword(s):  
Reef Fish ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Fish Assemblages ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Gulf Of Guinea ◽  
Tropical Island ◽  
Functional And Phylogenetic Diversity

The ecology of reef fish varies with depth, although patterns in diversity remain largely undescribed, in particular the complementarity of their taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic facets. In the present study we investigated patterns of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of fish on 21 reefs, at depths ranging from 3 to 31m, at Príncipe Island (Gulf of Guinea). Taxonomic and functional diversity decreased monotonically with depth; the pattern was less accentuated for phylogenetic diversity. Functional diversity was saturated at high levels of taxonomic diversity, reflecting redundancy in species traits, particularly at the shallower reefs. Functional diversity increased linearly with phylogenetic diversity; thus, increasing niche availability seems to translate into a larger diversity of phylogenies. Dissimilarities in the structure and composition of fish assemblages among reefs were correlated with differences in depth, including a progressive turnover in species. Depth affected the functional traits of nearshore reef fish. Trophic breadth decreased with depth; carnivores and planktivores increased with depth, whereas herbivores decreased with depth. Small-sized fusiform fish dominated on the shallowest reefs. In summary, the present study demonstrated decays in biodiversity, from different perspectives, of reef fish with depth, which are connected with shifts in fish traits.

scholarly journals Phylogenetic and Functional Traits Verify the Combined Effect of Deterministic and Stochastic Processes in the Community Assembly of Temperate Forests along an Elevational Gradient

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
Wensong Zhou ◽  
Yuxin Zhang ◽  
Shuang Zhang ◽  
Basil N. Yakimov ◽  
Keming Ma
Keyword(s):  
Stochastic Processes ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Woody Plants ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Abiotic Environment ◽  
Spatial Factors ◽  
Assembly Mechanism ◽  
Deterministic Processes

Explaining community assembly mechanisms along elevational gradients dominated by deterministic processes or stochastic processes is a pressing challenge. Many studies suggest that phylogenetic and functional diversity are significant indicators of the process. In this study, we analyzed the structure and beta diversity of phylogenetic and functional traits along an elevational gradient and discussed the effects of environmental and spatial factors. We found that the phylogenetic and functional traits showed inconsistent changes, and their variations were closely related to the abiotic environment. The results suggested that the community assembly of woody plants was obviously affected by the combined effect of deterministic processes and the stochastic hypothesis (primarily by the latter). Phylogenetic and functional traits had a certain relationship but changed according to different rules. These results enhance our understanding of the assembly mechanism of forest communities by considering both phylogenetic and functional traits.

scholarly journals Functional Diversity: An Epistemic Roadmap

BioScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (10) ◽  
pp. 800-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Malaterre ◽  
Antoine C Dussault ◽  
Sophia Rousseau-Mermans ◽  
Gillian Barker ◽  
Beatrix E Beisner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Ecological Management ◽  
Diversity Studies

Abstract Functional diversity holds the promise of understanding ecosystems in ways unattainable by taxonomic diversity studies. Underlying this promise is the intuition that investigating the diversity of what organisms actually do (i.e., their functional traits) within ecosystems will generate more reliable insights into the ways these ecosystems behave, compared to considering only species diversity. But this promise also rests on several conceptual and methodological (i.e., epistemic) assumptions that cut across various theories and domains of ecology. These assumptions should be clearly addressed, notably for the sake of an effective comparison and integration across domains, and for assessing whether or not to use functional diversity approaches for developing ecological management strategies. The objective of this contribution is to identify and critically analyze the most salient of these assumptions. To this aim, we provide an epistemic roadmap that pinpoints these assumptions along a set of historical, conceptual, empirical, theoretical, and normative dimensions.

Vertical dynamics in community functioning of biofilm-dwelling ciliates during the colonisation process in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (11) ◽  
pp. 1611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyun Bai ◽  
Congcong Guo ◽  
Mamun Abdullah Al ◽  
Alan Warren ◽  
Henglong Xu
Keyword(s):  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Coastal Waters ◽  
Yellow Sea ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Diversity Indices ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
The Yellow Sea ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Trait Distribution

Multifunctional trait analysis is increasingly recognised as an effective tool for assessing ecosystem function and environmental quality. Here, a baseline study was performed at four depths (i.e. 1, 2, 3.5 and 5m) in Yellow Sea coastal waters of northern China in order to determine the optimal depth for bioassessment using biological traits of biofilm-dwelling ciliates. Community-weighted means (CWM) from functional traits system were used to summarise the trait distribution and functional diversity of ciliates among the four depths during a 1-month colonisation period. Functional trait distribution revealed a clear temporal variation among the four depths. In total, 3 of 17 functional traits (i.e. feeding type, body size and flexibility) showed significant temporal patterns. Bootstrapped averaging and permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) tests demonstrated that the colonisation pattern of biofilm-dwelling ciliates as expressed by CWM at 1 and 2m differed significantly from those at 3.5 and 5m. Functional diversity indices showed lower variability at 1 and 2m than at 3.5 and 5m. These results suggest that 1 and 2m are the preferred sampling depths for bioassessment of marine water quality using biological traits of biofilm-dwelling ciliates.

scholarly journals Do forest over- and understory respond to the same environmental variables when viewed at the taxonomic and trait level?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenny Helsen ◽  
Yeng-Chen Shen ◽  
Tsung-Yi Lin ◽  
Chien-Fan Chen ◽  
Chu-Mei Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Diversity Patterns ◽  
Soil Variation

While the relative importance of climate filtering is known to be higher for woody species assemblages than herbaceous assemblage, it remains largely unexplored whether this pattern is also reflected between the woody overstory and herbaceous understory of forests. While climatic variation will be more buffered by the tree layer, the understory might also respond more to small-scale soil variation, next to experiencing additional environmental filtering due to the overstory's effects on light and litter quality. For (sub)tropical forests, the understory often contains a high proportion of fern and lycophyte species, for which environmental filtering is even less well understood. We explored the proportional importance of climate proxies and soil variation on the species, functional trait and (functional) diversity patterns of both the forest overstory and fern and lycophyte understory along an elevational gradient from 850 to 2100 m a.s.l. in northern Taiwan. We selected nine functional traits expected to respond to soil nutrient or climatic stress for this study and furthermore verified whether they were positively related across vegetation layers, as expected when driven by similar environmental drivers. We found that climate was a proportionally more important predictor than soil for the species composition of both vegetation layers and trait composition of the understory. The stronger than expected proportional effect of climate for the understory was likely due to fern and lycophytes' higher vulnerability to drought, while the high importance of soil for the overstory seemed driven by deciduous species. The environmental drivers affected different response traits in both vegetation layers, however, which together with additional overstory effects on understory traits, resulted in a strong disconnection of community-level trait values across layers. Interestingly, species and functional diversity patterns could be almost exclusively explained by climate effects for both vegetational layers, with the exception of understory species richness. This study illustrates that environmental filtering can differentially affect species, trait and diversity patterns and can be highly divergent for forest overstory and understory vegetation, and should consequently not be extrapolated across vegetation layers or between composition and diversity patterns.

scholarly journals Can functional traits explain phylogenetic signal in the composition of a plant community?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daijiang Li ◽  
Anthoy R Ives ◽  
Donald M Waller
Keyword(s):  
Functional Traits ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Phylogenetic Signal ◽  
Species Traits ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Phylogenetic Information ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Forest Sites ◽  
Species Abundances ◽  
Understory Plant

Phylogeny-based and functional trait-based analyses are two principle ways to study community assembly and underlying ecological processes. In principle, knowing all information about species traits would make phylogenetic information redundant, at least that component of phylogenetic signal in the distribution of species among communities that is caused by phylogenetically related species sharing similar traits. In reality, phylogenies may contain more information than a set of singular, discretely measured traits because we cannot measure all species traits and may misjudge which are most important. The extent to which functional trait information makes phylogenetic information redundant, however, has not been explicitly studied with empirical data in community ecology. Here, we use phylogenetic linear mixed models to analyze community assembly of 55 understory plant species in 30 forest sites in central Wisconsin. These communities show strong phylogenetic attraction, yet variation among sites in 20 environmental variables could not account for this pattern. Most of the 15 functional traits we measured had strong phylogenetic signal, but only three varied strongly among sites in ways that affected species' abundances. These three traits explained only 19% of variation in phylogenetic patterns of species co-occurrence. Thus, phylogenies appear to provide considerably more information about community assembly than the functional traits measured in this study, demonstrating the value of phylogeny in studying of community assembly processes even with abundant functional traits.

scholarly journals Effect of Flood Pulse on the Functional Diversity and Traits Composition of Birds With Different Degrees of Wetland Dependence in the Brazilian Pantanal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angélica Vilas Boas da Frota ◽  
Breno Dias Vitorino ◽  
Sara Miranda Almeida ◽  
Josué Ribeiro da Silva Nunes ◽  
Carolina Joana Da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Hydrological Regime ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Flood Pulse ◽  
Wetland Birds ◽  
Paraguay River

Abstract Hydrological dynamics of the Pantanal wetland drive the availability of resources and niche for aquatic and terrestrial fauna. We consider that changes in the hydrological regime of this floodplain can affect species richness, abundance and functional structure of waterbirds, wetland birds and non-wetland birds. Our study aimed to assess whether the degree of wetland dependence influences the response of bird groups to the flood pulse. We conducted the bird survey in the Paraguay River floodplain system, in five sampling sites, covering the periods of drought, flooding, full flood and ebb of the 2017–2018 hydrological cycle. Species richness and abundance were higher for non-wetland birds than waterbirds and wetland birds. On the other hand, we found that the higher the degree of wetland dependence by birds, the higher the differences in the functional-trait values. Species richness, abundance and all metrics of functional diversity varied significantly when there was an interaction between the degree of wetland dependence and the hydrological period. In all hydrological periods, bird groups occupied distinct niches. Traits such as foraging around or below the water surface were among the dominant functional traits in all hydrological periods. We emphasize the need to consider the functional traits of species in ecological studies of wetlands since measuring only species richness may not reflect the characteristics inherent to this type of ecosystem. In addition, the conservation of wetlands directly implies the maintenance of various niches throughout the hydrological periods, either for dependent or non-dependent bird species in wetlands.

scholarly journals Relationships between taxonomic and functional diversity: insights into assembly processes

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doriane Stagnol ◽  
Lise Bacouillard ◽  
Dominique Davoult
Keyword(s):  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Community Assembly ◽  
Rocky Shore ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Marine Habitats ◽  
Ecological Redundancy ◽  
And Function

Among the potential indicators of biodiversity, those based on the functional traits of species are interesting because they measure the aspects of diversity that potentially affect community assembly and function. However, trait-based approaches are still rarely considered and little is known about the degree to which taxonomic diversity (TD) and functional diversity (FD) are correlated. Yet, this relationship is thought to depend on the extent of ecological redundancy within the assemblage, i.e. the number of taxonomically distinct species that exhibit similar ecological functions. In this study, we characterized taxonomic and functional diversity within and between two marine habitats (rocky shore vs mudflats) under human-induced disturbances. Models were also used to test whether the relationship between TD and FD differed according to the indices used to characterize them. We found little effect of human disturbance on the shape of the TD-FD relationship, whereas communities of the mudflat appeared to be less redundant than those of rocky shore. This could be explained by the assembly rules of ecosystems: biotic filtering (competition and resource partitioning) reduces redundancy by selecting for functionally dissimilar species, whereas abiotic filtering increases redundancy by selecting for similar species sharing adaptations to a particular environment. The rocky shore environment is characterized by heterogeneity that allows the formation of distinct ecological niches that can be colonized by similar species: the abiotic filtering does not limit the redundancy permitted by habitat. Conversely, in the more homogeneous environment of mudflat, the biotic filter mitigates redundancy. Trait-mediated abiotic filtering appears to play an important role in community assembly in complex habitats, whereas the relative importance of competitive exclusion appears to be greater in homogeneous habitats.

Patterns of grassland community composition and structure along an elevational gradient on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Wang ◽  
Jiangling Zhu ◽  
Shitao Peng ◽  
Tianli Zheng ◽  
Zhaoyu Qi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Elevation Gradient ◽  
Elevational Gradient ◽  
Tibet Plateau ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Grassland Community ◽  
Β Diversity ◽  
Composition And Structure ◽  
Α Diversity ◽  
Qinghai Tibet Plateau

Abstract Aims Grasslands in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau play an important role in preserving ecological security and high biodiversity in this region. However, the distribution of the composition and structure of plant community and the mechanism by which it maintains itself in this region is still poorly understood. Methods Here, we designed 195 grassland plots in 39 grassland sites along an approximately 1700-m elevation gradient on the Northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Important findings We found that the grassland community height decreased significantly with the increase of elevation, while community coverage did not demonstrate significant changes. With the increase of elevation, the plant species richness (α diversity) increased significantly, but the community variability (β diversity) decreased significantly. The constrained clustering analysis suggested that the α- and β-diversity in the grasslands transformed gradually with elevation, and three discontinuous points (based on community structure) were observed at elevation of 3640, 4252 and 4333 m. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that the increase of precipitation and the decrease of temperature significantly positively influenced α diversity, which was negatively correlated with β diversity. These results demonstrate that the community composition and structure presented a quantitative-to-qualitative change along this elevational gradient on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

scholarly journals Functional traits of the world’s late Quaternary large-bodied avian and mammalian herbivores

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick J. Lundgren ◽  
Simon D. Schowanek ◽  
John Rowan ◽  
Owen Middleton ◽  
Rasmus Ø. Pedersen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Use ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Large Herbivore ◽  
Mammalian Herbivores ◽  
Threatened Taxa

AbstractPrehistoric and recent extinctions of large-bodied terrestrial herbivores had significant and lasting impacts on Earth’s ecosystems due to the loss of their distinct trait combinations. The world’s surviving large-bodied avian and mammalian herbivores remain among the most threatened taxa. As such, a greater understanding of the ecological impacts of large herbivore losses is increasingly important. However, comprehensive and ecologically-relevant trait datasets for extinct and extant herbivores are lacking. Here, we present HerbiTraits, a comprehensive functional trait dataset for all late Quaternary terrestrial avian and mammalian herbivores ≥10 kg (545 species). HerbiTraits includes key traits that influence how herbivores interact with ecosystems, namely body mass, diet, fermentation type, habitat use, and limb morphology. Trait data were compiled from 557 sources and comprise the best available knowledge on late Quaternary large-bodied herbivores. HerbiTraits provides a tool for the analysis of herbivore functional diversity both past and present and its effects on Earth’s ecosystems.

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