Trait‐based approaches to analyze links between the drivers of change and ecosystem services: Synthesizing existing evidence and future challenges

Abstract

Understanding the responses of biodiversity to drivers of change and the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem properties and ecosystem services is a key challenge in the context of global environmental change. We performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis of the scientific literature linking direct drivers of change and ecosystem services via functional traits of three taxonomic groups (vegetation, invertebrates, and vertebrates) to: (1) uncover trends and research biases in this field; and (2) synthesize existing empirical evidence. Our results show the existence of important biases in published studies related to ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, direct drivers of change, ecosystem services, geographical range, and the spatial scale of analysis. We found multiple evidence of links between drivers and services mediated by functional traits, particularly between land‐use changes and regulating services in vegetation and invertebrates. Seventy‐five functional traits were recorded in our sample. However, few of these functional traits were repeatedly found to be associated with both the species responses to direct drivers of change (response traits) and the species effects on the provision of ecosystem services (effect traits). Our results highlight the existence of potential “key functional traits,” understood as those that have the capacity to influence the provision of multiple ecosystem services, while responding to specific drivers of change, across a variety of systems and organisms. Identifying “key functional traits” would help to develop robust indicator systems to monitor changes in biodiversity and their effects on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services supply.

Functional responses of aquatic macroinvertebrates to flow regulation are shaped by natural flow intermittence in Mediterranean streams

“…We selected six effect traits (size, aquatic stage, dispersal, locomotion, food, and feeding habits) based on the updated reviews done by Schmera, Heino, Podani, Erós, and Dolédec () and Hevia et al. (). These traits are related to important processes associated with ecosystem functions such as energy flow in food webs, nutrient cycling, aeration of sediments, and recovery of disturbances (Covich et al., ).…”

Identifying future research directions for biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainability: perspectives from early-career researchers

“…Understanding the responses of biodiversity to drivers of change and the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions (Q1-3) is critical for developing predictions about the effect of global environmental change (Lavorel and Garnier 2002). However, to date, most studies have focused on taxonomic diversity (Vilà et al 2011;Queiroz et al 2014), conservation and species richness, while functional traits, system dynamics and ecosystem functions have received much less attention (Devictor et al 2010;Liu et al 2011;Hevia et al 2017). Many recent studies have indicated that functional diversity is the key determinant of ecosystem functioning (Cadotte et al 2011;Cardinale et al 2012).…”

Predicting resilience of ecosystem functioning from co‐varying species' responses to environmental change

“…The substantial sources of uncertainty severely constrain our ability to predict the delivery of ecosystem functions under any particular aspect of environmental change. It may explain why the few successful demonstrations have been limited to studying plant communities (Lavorel et al, ), with most focusing on single ecosystem functions (primary regulating services), and only 11% of studies considering more than two ecosystem functions (Hevia et al, ). Furthermore, only 4% of trait‐based approaches consider the simultaneous effects of multiple environmental drivers (Hevia et al, ), even though we know that drivers such as climate and land use change strongly interact in their impacts on biodiversity (Brook, Sodhi, & Bradshaw, ; Oliver & Morecroft, ).…”

“…It may explain why the few successful demonstrations have been limited to studying plant communities (Lavorel et al, ), with most focusing on single ecosystem functions (primary regulating services), and only 11% of studies considering more than two ecosystem functions (Hevia et al, ). Furthermore, only 4% of trait‐based approaches consider the simultaneous effects of multiple environmental drivers (Hevia et al, ), even though we know that drivers such as climate and land use change strongly interact in their impacts on biodiversity (Brook, Sodhi, & Bradshaw, ; Oliver & Morecroft, ). We expect the environment to change across multiple variables (e.g., multiple different aspects of climate and land use change); therefore, additively combining predictions of the effects of single drivers in order to understand the effects of multiple drivers on general resilience of ecosystem functioning makes the overall uncertainty in these reductionist predictive frameworks untenable.…”