Knowledge representation using fuzzy coded variables: an example based on the use of Syrphidae (Insecta, Diptera) in the assessment of riverine wetlands

Castella, Emmanuel; Speight, Martin C.D.

doi:10.1016/0304-3800(95)00015-1

Cited by 43 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Inundation tolerance of the larvae could be assumed to be one of the key factors determining occurrence of syrphid species in the floodplain. The importance of this trait variable together with larval food and microhabitat is in accordance with the studies by CASTELLA et al (1994), MURPHY et al (1994), CASTELLA and SPEIGHT (1996.…”

Section: Life History Datasupporting

confidence: 87%

Life‐History Data in Bioindication Procedures, Using the Example of Hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) in the Elbe Floodplain

Dziock

2006

International Review of Hydrobiology

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This is the first study to relate syrphid life history traits to environmental variables with a multi-trait approach. We aimed to answer two questions: 1. Do syrphid species respond to small scale changes in environmental variables in seasonally flooded grasslands in a Central European floodplain (Elbe)? 2. Can species response to environmental variables be explained by the biological characteristics of the species expressed by their life history traits? Despite their large mobility, syrphids did respond significantly to small scale changes in environmental variables (groundwater (GW) depth, cation exchange capacity, amplitude of variation of the GW-depth). On the other hand, the biological traits of the syrphids did not sufficiently explain syrphid occurrence at the sites. Possible explanations are discussed and an outlook for further studies is given. IntroductionThe first use of organisms as indicators for environmental conditions dates back to the days of Aristotle, who placed freshwater fish in salt water to observe their reactions (CAIRNS and PRATT, 1993). Farmers have used plants as bioindicators for thousands of years (DIEK- MANN, 2003). The medieval King's wine tasters or the canaries used to indicate air quality in coal mines are other historical examples for bioindicators (BURRELL and SIEBERT, 1916;CAIRNS and PRATT, 1993). Bioindicators can thus be defined as living organisms indicating environmental conditions through their presence or abundance . The past 40 years have seen a rapid development of ideas, concepts, and application of bioindicators (for reviews see METCALFE, 1989;CAIRNS and PRATT, 1993;MCGEOCH, 1998;NIEMI and MCDONALD, 2004). Currently, there is a strong need for reliable environmental assessment procedures because of environmental policies (e.g. the EU Habitat Directive) concentrating on cost-efficiency and applicability of bioindication systems on a large scale (at least pan-European).One potential way of achieving this would be to use general biological traits of organisms that indicate ecological functions (STATZNER et al., 2001a). These traits are used to reveal functional relationships of the species to habitat selective forces. These forces can be viewed as filters occuring at different spatial scales. To join a local community, species must possess appropriate functional attributes (species traits) to pass through the habitat filter (SOUTH-WOOD, 1977. Such traits and their relationships to the filter (environmental conditions) are considered to hold on a geographical scale and thus have potentially broad generality (POFF, 1997;STATZNER et al., 2001b). By contrast, applied ecologists often describe

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Section: Life History Datasupporting

confidence: 87%

Life‐History Data in Bioindication Procedures, Using the Example of Hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) in the Elbe Floodplain

Dziock

2006

International Review of Hydrobiology

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“…It extends the analysis of ecological profiles, which deals with species presence-absence tables, to species distribution tables. It has already been used in various other domains, including chemometry (Devillers and Chessel, 1995), phytopathology (Lamouroux et al, 1995), hydrobiology (Dolédec and Chessel, 1994;Castella and Speight, 1996), limnology (Verneaux et al, 1995), phyto-ecology (Bornette et al, 1994), nematology (Cadet et al, 1994), and molecular biology (Thioulouse and Lobry, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of birds as biological markers along a neotropical urban–rural gradient (Cayenne, French Guiana), using co-inertia analysis

Reynaud

Thioulouse

2000

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…Fuzzy coding, as described by Chevenet et al (1994), allows taxa to exhibit categories of a variable to different degrees. This takes account of variations in trait expression both between life stages and between individuals at each life stage (Castella & Speight 1996, Charvet et al 2000. The scoring range of 0 to 3 was adopted, with 0 being no affinity to a trait category and 3 being total affinity.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The approach has received little attention in the marine environment, originating in terrestrial plant (Olff et al 1994, McIntyre et al 1995 and freshwater invertebrate (Townsend & Hildrew 1994, Castella & Speight 1996 ecology. Biological traits analysis is based on habitat templet theory, which states that species' characteristics evolve in response to habitat constraints (Southwood 1977).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing functional diversity in marine benthic ecosystems: a comparison of approaches

Bremner¹,

Rogers²,

Frid³

2003

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

355

251

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Two methods traditionally employed to investigate functional diversity in marine benthic ecosystems are relative taxon composition analysis, which interprets changes in the distribution of taxa in terms of the characteristics they exhibit, and trophic group analysis, which investigates differences in feeding mechanisms between assemblages. An alternative approach, biological traits analysis, considers a range of biological traits expressed by organisms to assess how functioning varies between assemblages. This study compares biological traits analysis to the relative taxon composition and trophic group approaches. Biological trait scores were assigned to a range of epibenthic invertebrate taxa from the southern North Sea and eastern English Channel and differences in the relative proportions of these traits were investigated using multivariate methods. The traits important in differentiating stations were attachment, flexibility, body form, mobility, feeding method and life habit. Such assemblages were spatially heterogeneous and there was no obvious distinction between different geographical sectors. This contrasted with the results of the relative taxon composition approach, which showed broad patterns in assemblage distribution in the eastern English Channel and southern North Sea. The biological traits approach provided information on a larger variety of ecological functions than the other techniques and revealed very different relationships between assemblages. It highlighted a greater diversity of assemblage types and was resistant to large-scale biogeographic variation. Therefore, it is potentially more useful than the traditional approaches for assessing ecosystem functioning on both large and small scales in benthic environments.

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Knowledge representation using fuzzy coded variables: an example based on the use of Syrphidae (Insecta, Diptera) in the assessment of riverine wetlands

Cited by 43 publications

References 13 publications

Life‐History Data in Bioindication Procedures, Using the Example of Hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) in the Elbe Floodplain

Life‐History Data in Bioindication Procedures, Using the Example of Hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) in the Elbe Floodplain

Identification of birds as biological markers along a neotropical urban–rural gradient (Cayenne, French Guiana), using co-inertia analysis

Assessing functional diversity in marine benthic ecosystems: a comparison of approaches

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