Functional diversity is increasingly identified as an important driver of ecosystem functioning. Various indices have been proposed to measure the functional a community, but there still no consensus on which are most suitable. Indeed, none existing meets all criteria required for general use. The main that they must be designed deal with several traits, take into account abundances, and facets diversity. Here we propose three quantify each facet community species distributed in...

Summary 1. Indices quantifying the functional aspect of biodiversity are essential in understanding relationships between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and environmental constraints. Many indices diversity have been published but we lack consensus about what quantify, how redundant they which ones recommended. 2. This study aims to build a typology from artificial data sets encompassing various community structures (different assembly rules, species richness levels) identify set...

Summary 1. Ecological specialization is one of the main concepts in ecology and conservation. However, this concept has become highly context‐dependent now obscured by great variability existing definitions methods used to characterize ecological specialization. 2. In study, we clarify reviewing strengths limitations different approaches commonly define measure We first show that can either be considered as reflecting species’ requirements or impacts. then explain how depends on...

Human activities have strong impacts on ecosystem functioning through their effect abiotic factors and biodiversity. There is also growing evidence that species functional traits link changes in composition shifts processes. Hence, it appears to be of utmost importance quantify modifications the structure communities after human disturbance addition taxonomic structure. Despite this fact, there still little consensus actual human‐mediated habitat alteration components biodiversity, which...

Significance Our results indicate that, even in highly diverse systems like coral reefs, we can no longer assume that the erosion of species diversity be discounted by high probability functional redundancy: i.e., several support same function. Indeed, show fish tend to disproportionately pack into a few particular functions while leaving many vulnerable, they are supported just one species. Even Coral Triangle, which has concentration tropical-reef fishes, may experience loss following...

Abstract Aim Functional diversity is a key facet of biodiversity that increasingly being measured to quantify its changes following disturbance and understand effects on ecosystem functioning. Assessing the functional assemblages based species traits requires building space (dendrogram or multidimensional space) where indices will be computed. However, there still no consensus best method for measuring quality spaces. Innovation Here we propose framework evaluating (i.e. extent which it...

The accelerating rate of change in biodiversity patterns, mediated by ever increasing human pressures and global warming, demands a better understanding the relationship between structure biological communities ecosystem functioning (BEF). Recent investigations suggest that functional communities, i.e. composition diversity traits, is main driver ecological processes. However, predictive power BEF research still low, integration all components community as predictors lacking,...

There is broad consensus that the diversity of functional traits within species assemblages drives several ecological processes. It also widely recognized rare are first to become extinct following human-induced disturbances. Surprisingly, however, importance still poorly understood, particularly in tropical species-rich where majority rare, and rate extinction can be high. Here, we investigated consequences local regional extinctions on structure assemblages. We used three extensive...

Aim One of the main gaps in assessment biodiversity is lack a unified framework for measuring its taxonomic and functional facets unveiling underlying patterns. Location Europe, 25 large river basins. Methods Here, we develop decomposition β-diversity, i.e. dissimilarity composition between communities, into turnover nestedness-resultant component. Results We found that β-diversity was lower than β-diversity. This difference driven by compared with while component similar Main conclusions...

No waters left untouched We are increasingly aware of human impacts on biodiversity across our planet, especially in terrestrial and marine systems. know less about fresh waters, including large rivers. Su et al. looked such systems globally, focusing several key measures fish biodiversity. They found that half all river have been heavily affected by activities, with only very tropical basins receiving the lowest levels change. Fragmentation non-native species also led to homogenization...

The world is currently undergoing an unprecedented decline in biodiversity, which mainly attributable to human activities. For instance, nonnative species introduction, combined with the extirpation of native species, affects biodiversity patterns, notably by increasing similarity among assemblages. This change, called taxonomic homogenization, has rarely been assessed at scale. Here, we fill this gap assessing current homogenization status one most diverse vertebrate groups (i.e.,...

Agricultural land use is a primary driver of environmental impacts on streams. However, the causal processes that shape these operate through multiple pathways and at several spatial scales. This complexity undermines development more effective management approaches, illustrates need for in‐depth studies to assess mechanisms determine changes in stream biodiversity. Here we present results most comprehensive multi‐scale assessment biological condition streams Amazon date, examining...

Abstract Worldwide biodiversity assessments have mainly focused on species richness but little is known about the diversity of roles, i.e. functional diversity, while this a key facet to understanding consequences global changes ecosystem services human societies. Here, we report world pattern freshwater fish using database encompassing morphological characteristics more than 9,000 species. The Neotropical realm hosts 75% other realms each host less 25%. This discrepancy mediated by high...

Functional diversity (FD), the of organism attributes that relates to their interactions with abiotic and biotic environment, has been increasingly used for last two decades in ecology, biogeography conservation. Yet, FD many facets estimations are not standardized nor embedded a single tool. mFD (multifaceted functional diversity) is an R package uses matrices species assemblages trait values as building blocks compute most indices. firstly based on functions allowing user summarize...

Advances in the analysis of amplicon sequence datasets have introduced a methodological shift how research teams investigate microbial biodiversity, away from identity-based clustering (producing Operational Taxonomic Units, OTUs) to denoising methods variants, ASVs). While several inherent properties that make them desirable compared clustering-based methods, questions remain as influence these pipelines on ecological patterns being assessed, especially when other choices made processing...

The assessment of climate change impacts on biodiversity has so far been biased toward the taxonomic identification species likely either to benefit from modifications or experience overall declines. There have still few studies intended correlate characteristics their sensitivity change, even though it is now recognized that functional trait-based approaches are promising tools for addressing challenges related global changes. In this study, two indices (originality and uniqueness) were...

The widely used FD index of functional diversity is based on the construction a dendrogram. This has been subject strong debate concerning choice distance and clustering method to be used, since chosen may greatly affect values obtained. Much this centred around which dendrogram gives faithful representation species distribution in multidimensional trait space. From artificially generated datasets varying richness correlations between traits, we test whether any single combination method(s)...