Bringing the Eltonian niche into functional diversity
Bringing the Eltonian niche into functional diversity
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DOI：
10.1111/oik.05415
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发表时间：
2018-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Stouffer, Daniel B.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dehling, D. Matthias;Stouffer, Daniel B.
功能多样性（FD）的研究引起了极大的兴趣，因为它们有望更机械地理解多样性与生态系统功能之间的关系。然而，由于一些偏见和缺点，FD 的概念目前尚未充分发挥其潜力。例如，虽然对物种格林内尔生态位相关性状（即在不同环境条件下影响物种适应性的性状）的分析已经很深入，但对与物种埃尔顿生态位相关的功能多样性（即物种在生态过程中的功能作用及其对其他物种的影响）的研究却很缺乏，这种差异被称为埃尔顿缺口。最重要的是，目前通过物种性状测量 FD 的间接方法限制了对具有相似性状的物种（通常是一个分类单元）的分析。因此，FD 通常只针对一种分类单元进行测量，但针对不同的生态过程进行测量，而理想情况下，FD 应该针对一种生态过程进行测量，但针对对该过程做出贡献的所有分类单元进行测量。这些差异阻碍了我们对多样性与生态系统功能和服务之间关系的理解的进步。我们引入了一种测量功能多样性的新方法，旨在通过桥接网络、物种生态位和功能特征的研究来克服这些缺点。我们建议直接通过给定生态过程中物种资源和相互作用伙伴的特征来表征功能角色，而不是通过物种特征间接表征功能角色。至关重要的是，这种视角的转变首次允许对参与生态过程的所有类群的功能作用进行比较，而不管其自身的形态如何。我们通过对食果动物在种子传播系统中的功能作用的研究来说明我们的新方法。我们的方法是对现有 FD 研究方法的重要补充，它促进了功能多样性研究这一尚未探索的领域的新研究。
Studies of functional diversity (FD) have gained immense interest because they promise a more mechanistic understanding of the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functioning. However, the concept of FD is currently not used to its full potential because of several biases and shortcomings. For instance, while the analysis of traits related to species' Grinnellian niches, i.e. traits influencing species' fitness under different environmental conditions, is well-advanced, there is a lack of studies on the functional diversity related to species' Eltonian niches, i.e. species' functional roles in ecological processes and their effects on other species, a discrepancy known as the Eltonian Shortfall. Most importantly, the current indirect approach of measuring FD via species traits restricts analyses to species with similar traits, usually a taxon. Consequently, FD is generally measured for only one taxon but across different ecological processes, when it would ideally be measured for one ecological process but across all taxa that contribute to that process. These discrepancies hinder advances of our understanding of the relationship between diversity and ecosystem functions and services. We introduce a new approach to measuring functional diversity that is designed to overcome these shortcomings by bridging research on networks, species niches, and functional traits. Instead of characterizing functional roles indirectly via species' traits, we propose to characterize functional roles directly via the traits of species' resources and interaction partners in a given ecological process. Critically, this shift in perspective for the first time allows comparisons of the functional roles of all taxa that participate in an ecological process regardless of their own morphology. We illustrate our new approach with a study on functional roles of frugivores in seed-dispersal systems. Our approach is an important addition to existing approaches to studying FD, and it facilitates new studies in a vastly unexplored field of functional diversity research.