Functional diversity is at the heart of current research in the field of conservation biology. Most of the indices that measure diversity depend on variables that have various statistical types (e.g. circular, fuzzy, ordinal) and that go through a matrix of distances among species. We show how to compute such distances from a generalization of Gower's distance, which is dedicated to the treatment of mixed data. We prove Gower's distance can be extended to include new types of data. The impact of this generalization is illustrated on a real data set containing 80 plant species and 13 various traits. Gower's distance allows an efficient treatment of missing data and the inclusion of variable weights. An evaluation of the real contribution of each variable to the mixed distance is proposed. We conclude that such a generalized index will be crucial for analyzing functional diversity at small and large scales.

Functional diversity is at the heart of current research in the field of conservation biology. Most of the indices that measure diversity depend on variables that have various statistical types (e.g. circular, fuzzy, ordinal) and that go through a matrix of distances among species. We show how to compute such distances from a generalization of Gower's distance, which is dedicated to the treatment of mixed data. We prove Gower's distance can be extended to include new types of data. The impact of this generalization is illustrated on a real data set containing 80 plant species and 13 various traits. Gower's distance allows an efficient treatment of missing data and the inclusion of variable weights. An evaluation of the real contribution of each variable to the mixed distance is proposed. We conclude that such a generalized index will be crucial for analyzing functional diversity at small and large scales.

International audienceQuestion: Which biological traits (persistence, regeneration, dispersion traits and resource requirements) may explain the distribution of woodland flora along an urban-rural gradient? Location: The study was carried out in three medium- sized conurbations of north-western France: Angers, Nantes and Rennes. Methods: We sampled the vegetation of 36 small woodlands of about 1.5 ha composed of nonplanted vegetation along an urban-rural gradient. We characterized the position of woodlands along the urban-rural gradient by examining adjacent land cover. By using an ordination analysis (RLQ), we analysed which traits out of -23 tested were related to the contrasted distribution of species along the urban-rural gradient. Results: Species that are more likely to be found in urban woodlands than rural woodlands have different persistence traits (higher specific leaf area , more often rosette or semi-rosette form, less underground vegetative multiplication), resource requirements (affinity for base-rich and fertile soils) and regeneration traits (short life-span). Dispersion traits were not related to the distribution of species along the urban-rural gradient. Conclusions: Our approach identifies traits that can help to determine the vulnerability of forest species as a result of the environmental changes that follow urbanization. Limiting the influence of the urban environment on habitat quality (particularly disturbance and soil enrichment) is likely to be of major importance in maintaining the plant biodiversity in woodlands

The increasing rate of urban sprawl continues to fragment European landscapes threatening the persistence of native woodland plant communities. The dynamics of woodland edges depend on the characteristics of woodland patches and also on landscape context. Our aim was to assess the extent of edge influences on the understorey vegetation of small native woodlands in rural and urban landscapes. The study was carried out in two cities of north-western France. Ten comparable woodlands, each of about 1.5 ha, were surveyed; five were situated adjacent to crops and five adjacent to built-up land. Vascular plant species were recorded in 420 3 9 3 m plots placed at seven different distances from Nomenclature: Lambinon et al. (1992). the edge (from 0 to about 45 m from the edge). Soil pH, light levels, level of disturbance and tree and shrub cover were also recorded. Plant species were first classified as nonindigenous or indigenous and then three groups of indigenous species were distinguished according to their affinity for forest habitat (forest specialists, forest generalists and nonforest species). We inferred certain ecological characteristics of understorey vegetation by using Ellenberg values. An inter-class correspondence analysis was carried out to detect patterns of variation in plant community composition. Linear mixed models were used to test the effects of adjacent land use, distance from the edge and their interactions on the species richness of the different groups and on the ecological characteristics of vegetation. Total species richness, richness of forest generalists and of non-forest species decreased from edge to interior in both urban and rural woodlands. The number of non-indigenous species depended mainly on urban-rural landscape context. Urban woodland edges were not as rich in forest specialists as rural edges. More surprisingly, the number of forest specialists was higher in rural edges than in rural interiors. Community composition was mainly affected by urban-rural context and to a lesser degree by the edge effect: the community composition of urban edges resembled that of urban interiors whereas in rural woodlands vegetation near edges (up to 10 m) strongly differed from interiors with a pool of species specific to edges. Urban woodland vegetation was more nitrophilous than rural vegetation in both edges and interiors. A major difference between urban and rural vegetation was the distribution of basiphilous species according to distance from the edge. Generally edge vegetation was more basiphilous than interior vegetation however the presence of basiphilous species fell off quickly with distance from the edge in rural woodlands (in the first 10-15 m) and more slowly (from 25 m onwards) in urban woodlands. This pattern was linked to variation in measured soil pH. As regards the conservation of flora in small native woodlands, it appeared that invasion of exotic and non-forest species was currently limited in both urban and rural landscape contexts but might pose problems in the future, especial...