What determines the importance of a species for ecosystem processes? Insights from tropical ant assemblages
What determines the importance of a species for ecosystem processes? Insights from tropical ant assemblages
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DOI：
10.1007/s00442-017-3900-x
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发表时间：
2017-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Menzel, Florian
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Houadria, Mickal;Menzel, Florian
众所周知，生物多样性可以增强生态系统的功能。然而，物种对生态系统过程的贡献各不相同。本文以热带蚂蚁群落为研究对象，研究了基于不同资源消耗的7种生态系统功能。我们分析了不同物种如何影响站点级资源消耗，并确定了每个物种如何影响这些功能的性能和稳定性。在模拟灭绝的基础上，我们确定了具有重要功能贡献的“关键物种”。然后，我们研究了生物量、丰度和专业化等特征，并比较了四个地点的特征分布，以分析功能冗余的差异。只有少数物种对生态系统功能有显著影响。常见的通才物种往往是许多生态系统功能的最重要驱动因素，尽管一些特殊物种在本研究中也被证明是重要的。此外，不同地点的物种特异性生态影响也不同。此外，我们发现功能冗余度在不同的站点之间存在差异，在最常见的物种没有同时产生最大的功能影响的站点中，功能冗余度最高。此外，在物种特化程度较低且发生率分布更均匀的地点，冗余度得到增强。我们的研究表明，一个物种的生态重要性不仅取决于其功能特征，还取决于其群落环境。如果不调查其跨多种功能的物种特异性表现，就无法评估它。因此，为了评估栖息地的功能冗余和物种损失的补偿潜力，研究人员需要研究与功能性能、种群动态和对环境条件的耐受性有关的物种特异性特征。
Biodiversity is known to increase ecosystem functioning. However, species vary in their contributions to ecosystem processes. Here, we investigated seven ecosystem functions based on the consumption of different resources in tropical ant communities. We analysed how different species influence site-level resource consumption, and determined how each species influenced performance and stability of these functions. Based on simulated extinctions, we identified 'key species' with significant functional contributions. We then investigated which traits, such as biomass, abundance, and specialisation, characterized them, and compared trait distributions across four sites to analyse differences in functional redundancy. Only few species significantly influenced ecosystem functions. Common generalist species tended to be the most important drivers of many ecosystem functions, though several specialist species also proved to be important in this study. Moreover, species-specific ecological impacts varied across sites. In addition, we found that functional redundancy varied across sites, and was highest in sites where the most common species did not simultaneously have the greatest functional impacts. Furthermore, redundancy was enhanced in sites where species were less specialised and had more even incidence distributions. Our study demonstrates that the ecological importance of a species depends on its functional traits, but also on the community context. It cannot be assessed without investigating its species-specific performance across multiple functions. Hence, to assess functional redundancy in a habitat and the potential for compensation of species loss, researchers need to study species-specific traits that concern functional performance as well as population dynamics and tolerance to environmental conditions.