Multidecadal changes in functional diversity lag behind the recovery of taxonomic diversity.

ABSTRACT: While there has been increasing interest in how taxonomic diversity is changing over time, less is known about how long-term taxonomic changes may affect ecosystem functioning and resilience. Exploring long-term patterns of functional diversity can provide key insights into the capacity of a community to carry out ecological processes and the redundancy of species' roles. We focus on a protected freshwater system located in a national park in southeast Germany. We use a high-resolution benthic macroinvertebrate dataset spanning 32 years (1983-2014) and test whether changes in functional diversity are reflected in taxonomic diversity using a multidimensional trait-based approach and regression analyses. Specifically, we asked: (i) How has functional diversity changed over time? (ii) How fun

SUBMITTER: Baker NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8668763 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature