Disentangling the influences of mean body size and size structure on ecosystem functioning: an example of nutrient recycling by a non-native crayfish.

ABSTRACT: Body size is a fundamental functional trait that can be used to forecast individuals' responses to environmental change and their contribution to ecosystem functioning. However, information on the mean and variation of size distributions often confound one another when relating body size to aggregate functioning. Given that size-based metrics are used as indicators of ecosystem status, it is important to identify the specific aspects of size distributions that mediate ecosystem functioning. Our goal was to simultaneously account for the mean, variance, and shape of size distributions when relating body size to aggregate ecosystem functioning. We take advantage of habitat-specific differences in size distributions to estimate nutrient recycling by a non-native crayfish using mean-field and

SUBMITTER: Fritschie KJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4716502 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature