Fish functional traits correlated with environmental variables in a temperate biodiversity hotspot.

ABSTRACT: The global biodiversity crisis has invigorated the search for generalized patterns in most disciplines within the natural sciences. Studies based on organismal functional traits attempt to broaden implications of results by identifying the response of functional traits, instead of taxonomic units, to environmental variables. Determining the functional trait responses enables more direct comparisons with, or predictions for, communities of different taxonomic composition. The North American freshwater fish fauna is both diverse and increasingly imperiled through human mediated disturbances, including climate change. The Tennessee River, USA, contains one of the most diverse assemblages of freshwater fish in North America and has more imperiled species than other rivers, but there has been n

SUBMITTER: Keck BP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3968117 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature