Functional diversity should be incorporated into conservation and restoration decision-making

Beyond species: functional diversity and the maintenance of ecological processes and services

Marc W. Cadotte, Kelly Carscadden,Nicholas Mirotchnick

Journal of Applied Ecology

Volume 48, Issue 5, pages 1079–1087, October 2011 published online: 19 AUG 201

Here is a thought provoking paper on functional diversity and the maintenance of ecological processes and service

The goal of conservation and restoration activities is to maintain biological diversity and the ecosystem services that this diversity gives us. Traditionally these activities focus on species. This gives us only information on the presence and abundance of species. But how diversity influences ecosystem function depends on the traits and niches filled by species.

The authors say biological diversity can be quantified in ways that account for functional and phenotypic differences. A number of such measures of functional diversity (FD) have been created, quantifying the distribution of traits in a community or the relative magnitude of species similarities and differences.  Here the researchers review FD measures and why they are intuitively useful for understanding ecological patterns and how they are important for management.

The researcher adds “In order for FD to be meaningful and worth measuring, it must be correlated with ecosystem function, and it should provide information above and beyond what species richness or diversity can explain. We review these two propositions, examining whether the strength of the correlation between FD and species richness varies across differing environmental gradients and whether FD offers greater explanatory power of ecosystem function than species richness.”

FD can explain variation in ecosystem function even when richness does not.

The researchers sign off with the following words “FD measures those aspects of diversity that potentially affect community assembly and function. Given this explanatory power, FD should be incorporated into conservation and restoration decision-making, especially for those efforts attempting to reconstruct or preserve healthy, functioning ecosystems.”