Common species contribute little to spatial patterns of functional diversity across scales in coastal grasslands
Publication Date
2022-05Journal Title
Journal of Ecology
ISSN
0022-0477
Publisher
Wiley
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
White, H. J., Pakeman, R. J., & Buckley, Y. M. (2022). Common species contribute little to spatial patterns of functional diversity across scales in coastal grasslands. Journal of Ecology https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13858
Description
Funder: Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100011310
Funder: Scottish Government; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100012095
Abstract
Abstract: Spatial patterns of functional diversity are important in understanding community assembly as well as spatial variation in ecosystem functioning, yet the contribution of different species to these patterns remains unclear, making it difficult to generalise. Several studies have previously used a sequential addition approach to determine the subsets of species that contribute to the spatial distribution of species richness, frequently showing the importance of common species to richness patterns. This approach, however, has not been applied to functional diversity despite the central role of species traits in community ecology. Here we use a multiscale survey of plants from the Machair grassland system of the Western Isles of Scotland to ask the following questions: (i) Do functional diversity patterns correlate better with geographically common or geographically rare species?; (ii) Do their relative contributions vary with spatial scale?; and (iii) Do these patterns vary between functional diversity measures? We show that while species richness patterns correlate with geographically common species, common species contribute less than expected to spatial patterns of functional diversity at frequently used spatial monitoring scales. The relative contribution of species to overall biodiversity patterns, however, can vary with spatial scale. Synthesis. Surveying only common species may be inadequate for estimating spatial patterns of functional diversity, especially if using occurrence as opposed to percentage cover or abundance data, and spatial scale needs to be considered when designing surveys. Our approach highlights the species that may be adequate indicators of different dimensions of biodiversity and contributes to our understanding of the distribution of functional diversity in space.
Keywords
Biodiversity ecology, Macroecology, RESEARCH ARTICLE, RESEARCH ARTICLES, commonness, distribution, functional diversity, plant diversity, rarity, traits
Sponsorship
Irish Research Council (GOIPD/2020/483)
Identifiers
jec13858, jecol-2021-0683.r1
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13858
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/334405
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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