Functional Diversity: An Important Measure of Ecosystem Functioning

Abstract

Functional diversity is a component of biodiversity that generally covers the range of functional traits of microorganisms prevailing in an ecosystem. Functional diversity is of high ecological importance because it is capable of influencing several aspects of ecosystem functioning like ecosystem dynamics, stability, nutrient availability, etc. Functional diversity of a community can be measured by functional richness and evenness. Functional richness refers to the number of species inhabiting a particular niche and functional evenness reveals how evenly the species are being distributed. Increase or decrease in functional richness and evenness simultaneously increases and decreases the functional diversity respectively. Decrease in functional richness and evenness decreases the ecosystem productivity and stability which ultimately decreases functional diversity of the same ecosystem. The effects of functional diversity on the productivity of an ecosystem can be quantitatively explained by the sampling effect model and the niche differentiation model. There are other proposed mechanisms like Niche complementarity and species redundancy relating functional diversity with ecosystem functioning. Rivets and idiosyncratic models relate functional diversity and species richness with ecosystem functioning. By considering the above proposed models on ecosystem functioning, it can be considered that functional diversity is a principal component of ecosystem functioning. So it can be assumed that, knowledge about a particular ecosystem reveals its richness and evenness which enable an individual knowing about the diversity of functional traits prevailing in the ecosystem. Thus, it opens up a new way in understanding and carrying out ecology related studies more efficiently and precisely in ecosystem.

Multi-decadal patterns of vegetation succession after tundra fire on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

“…We also calculated the converse Simpson's diversity index, a mathematical measure that characterizes species diversity in a community by the number and abundance of species present (Simpson 1949, Smith and Wilson 1996, Goswami et al 2017. We calculated the Simpson's index using AHC values recorded for each taxon at each plot.…”

Cover crops in arable lands increase functional complementarity and redundancy of bacterial communities

“…The response of soil microbial communities to CC would thus gain to be addressed within the specialistgeneralist strategy scheme (Langenheder & Prosser, 2008;Mariadassou, Pichon, & Ebert, 2015). In addition, different species can use resources in a complementary way, so that the community they form is more efficient in acquiring available resources via resource partitioning or facilitation (Goswami et al, 2017;Hunting et al, 2015), ultimately leading to improved ecosystem functions (Mori et al, 2013). For instance, chitin degradation in the soil organic matter involves several complementary microbial functions (Martínez-García, Korthals, Brussaard, Jørgensen, & De Deyn, 2018), and the loss of some functional groups has been shown to result in the collapse of some ecosystem functions (Goswami et al, 2017).…”

“…In addition, different species can use resources in a complementary way, so that the community they form is more efficient in acquiring available resources via resource partitioning or facilitation (Goswami et al, 2017;Hunting et al, 2015), ultimately leading to improved ecosystem functions (Mori et al, 2013). For instance, chitin degradation in the soil organic matter involves several complementary microbial functions (Martínez-García, Korthals, Brussaard, Jørgensen, & De Deyn, 2018), and the loss of some functional groups has been shown to result in the collapse of some ecosystem functions (Goswami et al, 2017). Functional complementarity and redundancy within soil microbial communities are thus considered as good proxies for ecosystem stability (Goswami et al, 2017;Konopka, 2009).…”

“…For instance, chitin degradation in the soil organic matter involves several complementary microbial functions (Martínez-García, Korthals, Brussaard, Jørgensen, & De Deyn, 2018), and the loss of some functional groups has been shown to result in the collapse of some ecosystem functions (Goswami et al, 2017). Functional complementarity and redundancy within soil microbial communities are thus considered as good proxies for ecosystem stability (Goswami et al, 2017;Konopka, 2009).…”

Evaluating policy-relevant surrogate taxa for biodiversity conservation: a case study from British Columbia, Canada

“…Letters above the bars indicate significantly different groups (P < 0.05) from a post hoc Tukey's comparison. systems in general has been identified as a key factor in increasing the stability of ecosystems and maintaining ecosystem functions (Naeem 1998;Rosenfeld 2002;Goswami et al 2017). Therefore, using surrogate groups that have redundant associations with other species may help mitigate imprecision in species-habitat data and provide a more robust assessment of covariation in fitness between surrogate and non-surrogate species.…”