Variability of functional traits and their syndromes in a freshwater fish species (Phoxinus phoxinus): The role of adaptive and nonadaptive processes.

ABSTRACT: Functional traits can covary to form "functional syndromes." Describing and understanding functional syndromes is an important prerequisite for predicting the effects of organisms on ecosystem functioning. At the intraspecific level, functional syndromes have recently been described, but very little is known about their variability among populations and-if they vary-what the ecological and evolutionary drivers of this variation are. Here, we quantified and compared the variability in four functional traits (body mass, metabolic rate, excretion rate, and boldness), their covariations and the subsequent syndromes among thirteen populations of a common freshwater fish (the European minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus). We then tested whether functional traits and their covariations, as well as the subs

SUBMITTER: Raffard A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6405509 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature