Handbook of Trait Based Ecology From Theory to R Tools 1st Edition by Francesco de Bello, Carlos P Carmona, André TC Dias, Lars Götzenberger, Marco Moretti, Matty Berg ISBN 9781108460750 1108460755

1 General Introduction

1.1 General Definitions

1.2 From Species to Functions

1.3 What Is a Functional Trait?

1.4 Response and Effect Traits

1.5 Open Challenges

2 Trait Selection and Standardization

2.1 Which Traits to Select?

2.2 How Many Traits?

2.3 Where to Get Trait Values From?

2.3.1 Traits from the Literature and Databases

2.3.2 Measuring Traits

2.4 How to Express Trait Values?

2.5 Missing Trait Data

2.6 Trait Standards

2.6.1 Why and How to Standardize Trait Measurements?

2.6.2 How to Work with Trait Protocols?

3 The Ecology of Differences: Groups vs Continuum

3.1 Historical and Conceptual Overview

3.1.1 Functional Groups

3.1.2 Trait Trade-offs and r/K Selection

3.1.3 C-S-R, L-H-S and ‘Spectra’ of Differentiation

3.2 From Theory to Numbers

3.2.1 The Species x Trait Matrix

3.2.2 Computing the Dissimilarity between Species

3.2.3 Overlooked Issues with the Gower Distance

3.2.4 Grouping Species

4 Response Traits and the Filtering Metaphor

4.1 From Early Biogeography to Trait-Environment Relationships

4.1.1 Trait Variation within Species

4.1.2 Trait Variation across Species

4.2 Environmental Gradients

4.3 The Environmental Filtering Metaphor

4.4 From Species to Communities and Back

4.5 Relating Functional Traits to Fitness

4.6 Traits and Species-Distribution Models

5 Community Metrics

5.1 Community Functional Trait Structure

5.2 Community Weighted Mean (CWM)

5.2.1 Computing CWM

5.2.2 Considerations on Species Abundance

5.3 Functional Diversity Indices

5.3.1 Range and Convex Hull

5.3.2 Sum of Distances

5.3.3 Variance

5.3.4 Mean Dissimilarity

5.3.5 Regularity

5.4 Functional Diversity Components

5.5 Partitioning Functional Diversity

5.6 R Tools to Compute Functional Diversity

6 Intraspecific Trait Variability

6.1 The Source of Intraspecific Trait Variability

6.2 The Importance of Intraspecific Trait Variability

6.2.1 Speciation

6.2.2 Population Size and Genetic Diversity

6.2.3 Adaptation

6.2.4 Distribution

6.2.5 Invasion Predictability

6.2.6 Community Assembly

6.2.7 Trait-Mediated Species Interactions

6.2.8 Ecosystem Processes

6.3 Assessing Intraspecific Trait Variability

6.3.1 Quantifying Intra- vs Interspecific Trait Variability

6.3.2 Intraspecific Trait Adjustments vs Species Turnover

6.3.3 Trait Variability across Ecological Scales

6.3.4 Including Intraspecific Variability into Functional Diversity

7 Community Assembly Rules

7.1 Community Assembly Mechanisms

7.1.1 Defining the Reference Species Pool

7.2 Biotic Interactions and Species Coexistence

7.2.1 Historical Perspective

7.2.2 Coexistence Theory

7.2.3 Moving Past (Pairwise) Competition

7.3 Trait-Based Community Assembly

7.4 Assessing Assembly Rules

7.5 Null Models

7.6 Community Assembly Applications

7.6.1 Predicting Species Abundances and Trait Structure

7.6.2 Invasive Species

8 Traits and Phylogenies

8.1 What Is a Phylogenetic Tree?

8.2 Brownian Motion and Why Related Species Should Be Similar

8.3 Linking Evolution and Trait Filtering

8.4 Phylogenetic Signal

8.5 Are Traits Brownian?

8.6 Phylogenetic Comparative Methods

8.6.1 The Comparative Method and Evolution

8.6.2 Independent Contrasts

8.6.3 Moving Past PICs

8.6.4 Imputing Data with Phylogeny

8.7 Phylogenetic Diversity and Community Assembly

8.8 Combining Phylogenetic and Functional Diversities

8.9 Evolutionary Niche Modelling

9 Effects of Traits on Ecosystem Processes and Services

9.1 Links between Effect Traits and Ecosystem Processes

9.2 Assessing Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions (BEF) Relationships

9.3 Disentangling Functional Traits Effects on Ecosystem Functioning

9.3.1 Designing Experiments Disentangling CWM and FD

9.3.2 Analysing Biodiversity Experiments

9.4 The Response-Effect Trait Framework

10 Response and Effect Traits across Trophic Levels

10.1 Multitrophic Controls on Ecosystem Functioning

10.2 The Multitrophic Response-Effect Trait Framework

10.2.1 Adding Numbers to the Framework

10.2.2 Intraspecific Trait Variability in Trophic Cascades

10.3 Response and Effect Trophic Traits in Interaction Networks

10.4 Perspectives

11 Trait Sampling Strategies

11.1 The ‘Ambitious Supervisor’ Exercise

11.2 Accuracy and Precision

11.3 Trait Variation at Different Scales

11.4 Sampling Strategies

11.4.1 Starting Point: Setting Limits

11.4.2 Literature on Sampling Strategies

11.4.3 ‘Length’ of the Environmental Gradient

11.5 Species’ Abundances and Missing Values

11.6 A Visual Guide to Choosing Sampling Strategies

12 Applied Trait-Based Ecology

12.1 Biomonitoring: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health

12.2 Traits in Agricultural Systems

12.3 Ecosystem-Based Solutions

12.3.1 Green Urban Infrastructure

12.3.2 Restoration with Functional Targets

12.4 Exotic Species’ Impacts on Ecosystems

12.5 Ecological Literacy

References

Index