Does the use of biological traits predict a smooth landscape of ecosystem functioning?

ABSTRACT: The biodiversity crisis has increased interest in understanding the role of biodiversity for ecosystem functioning. Functional traits are often used to infer ecosystem functions to increase our understanding of these relationships over larger spatial scales. The links between specific traits and ecosystem functioning are, however, not always well established. We investigated how the choice of analyzing either individual species, selected modalities, or trait combinations affected the spatial patterns observed on a sandflat and how this was related to the natural variability in ecosystem functioning. A large dataset of 400 benthic macrofauna samples was used to explore distribution patterns. We hypothesized that (1) if multiple species (redundancy) represent a trait combination or a modalit

SUBMITTER: Gammal J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7548162 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature