Unraveling the relative contribution of inter- and intrapopulation functional variability in wild populations of a tadpole species.

ABSTRACT: Functional traits are increasingly recognized as an integrative approach by ecologists to quantify a key facet of biodiversity. And these traits are primarily expressed as species means in previous studies, based on the assumption that the effects of intraspecific variability can be overridden by interspecific variability when studying functional ecology at the community level. However, given that intraspecific variability could also have important effects on community dynamics and ecosystem functioning, empirical studies are needed to investigate the importance of intraspecific variability in functional traits. In this study, 256 Scutiger boulengeri tadpole individuals from four different populations are used to quantify the functional difference between populations within a specie

SUBMITTER: Zhao T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5496530 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature