Species' traits and ecological functioning in marine conservation and management

Marine conservation increasingly focuses on describing and maintaining ecosystem functioning. However, it is difficult to find suitable measures for whole-ecosystem functioning because the concept incorporates many different processes and includes physical, chemical and biological phenomena. An approach is presented here for describing functioning based on traits exhibited by members of biological assemblages. Species' traits determine how they contribute to ecosystem processes, so the presence and distribution of such traits can be utilised to indicate aspects of functioning. This multi-trait approach is relatively new to marine ecology and the few studies to-date have mainly described patterns of functioning with respect to environmental variability and investigated the impacts of bottom trawling. Areas where the approach can make a significant contribution to conservation and marine management are discussed, such as monitoring the effects of human activities and success of subsequent management strategies, identifying species likely to become invasive or those particularly vulnerable to extinction and predicting the effects of future disturbance such as climate change.

[1]  Simon A. Levin,et al.  Encyclopedia of Biodiversity , 2000 .

[2]  M. Pigliucci,et al.  Traits of invasives reconsidered: phenotypic comparisons of introduced invasive and introduced noninvasive plant species within two closely related clades. , 2006, American journal of botany.

[3]  B. Statzner,et al.  Invertebrate traits for the biomonitoring of large European rivers: an initial assessment of trait patterns in least impacted river reaches , 2005 .

[4]  Julian D. Olden,et al.  Small fish, big fish, red fish, blue fish: size-biased extinction risk of the world's freshwater and marine fishes. , 2007 .

[5]  K. Linsenmair,et al.  Diversity erosion beyond the species level : Dramatic loss of functional diversity after selective logging in two tropical amphibian communities , 2006 .

[6]  J. Emmett Duffy.  Biodiversity and the functioning of seagrass ecosystems , 2006 .

[7]  Paul A. Keddy,et al.  Assembly and response rules: two goals for predictive community ecology , 1992 .

[8]  D. Schiel.  Rivets or bolts? When single species count in the function of temperate rocky reef communities , 2006 .

[9]  Roderick Hunt,et al.  Allocating C-S-R plant functional types : a soft approach to a hard problem , 1999 .

[10]  A. Kinzig,et al.  Original Articles: Plant Attribute Diversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Function: The Nature and Significance of Dominant and Minor Species , 1999, Ecosystems.

[11]  J. S. Gray,et al.  Species richness of marine soft sediments , 2002 .

[12]  F. Schöll,et al.  Use of biological traits for interpreting functional relationships in large rivers , 2004 .

[13]  M. Verlaque,et al.  Biological pollution in the Mediterranean Sea: invasive versus introduced macrophytes. , 2002, Marine pollution bulletin.

[14]  C. Townsend,et al.  Species traits in relation to a habitat templet for river systems , 1994 .

[15]  R. Rosenberg,et al.  Bioresuspension and biodeposition: a review , 1997 .

[16]  K. Cooper,et al.  Assessment of ecosystem function following marine aggregate dredging , 2008 .

[17]  Sandy P. Harrison,et al.  Relationships between plant traits and climate in the Mediterranean region: A pollen data analysis , 2004 .

[18]  V. Resh,et al.  How common are rare taxa in long-term benthic macroinvertebrate surveys? , 2005, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[19]  N. LeRoy Poff,et al.  Landscape Filters and Species Traits: Towards Mechanistic Understanding and Prediction in Stream Ecology , 1997, Journal of the North American Benthological Society.

[20]  Richard Law,et al.  Fishing, selection, and phenotypic evolution , 2000 .

[21]  Christopher D G Harley,et al.  The impacts of climate change in coastal marine systems. , 2006, Ecology letters.

[22]  O. Petchey.  On the statistical significance of functional diversity effects , 2004 .

[23]  Akbar Montaser,et al.  Inductively coupled plasmas in analytical atomic spectrometry , 1987 .

[24]  F. Chapin,et al.  Biotic Control over the Functioning of Ecosystems , 1997 .

[25]  Kevin J. Gaston,et al.  Functional diversity (FD), species richness and community composition , 2002 .

[26]  Inger Wallentinus,et al.  Introduced marine organisms as habitat modifiers. , 2007, Marine pollution bulletin.

[27]  Jarrett E. K. Byrnes,et al.  Species diversity, invasion success, and ecosystem functioning: disentangling the influence of resource competition, facilitation, and extrinsic factors , 2006 .

[28]  G. Scott,et al.  Weighing the costs and benefits of reduced sampling resolution in biomonitoring studies: Perspectives from the temperate rocky intertidal , 2007 .

[29]  W. Resetarits,et al.  Functional diversity within a morphologically conservative genus of predators: implications for functional equivalence and redundancy in ecological communities , 2007 .

[30]  Owen L. Petchey,et al.  Extinction and the loss of functional diversity , 2002, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[31]  B. Statzner,et al.  Perspectives for biomonitoring at large spatial scales: a unified measure for the functional composition of invertebrate communities in European running waters , 2001 .

[32]  Sergej Olenin,et al.  Are aliens threatening European aquatic coastal ecosystems? , 2006, Helgoland Marine Research.

[33]  Debra L. Wohl,et al.  FUNCTIONAL REDUNDANCY SUPPORTS BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION IN A CLOSED AND CONSTANT ENVIRONMENT , 2004 .

[34]  Eric Garnier,et al.  From Plant Traits to Plant Communities: A Statistical Mechanistic Approach to Biodiversity , 2006, Science.

[35]  J. Lawton,et al.  Linking Species and Ecosystems , 1996 .

[36]  S. Thrush,et al.  Habitat variation, species diversity and ecological functioning in a marine system , 2008 .

[37]  D. Bailey,et al.  Functional richness of local hoverfly communities (Diptera, Syrphidae) in response to land use across temperate Europe , 2006, Oikos.

[38]  Zoltán Botta-Dukát,et al.  Rao's quadratic entropy as a measure of functional diversity based on multiple traits , 2005 .

[39]  M. Vellend,et al.  Using subsets of species in biodiversity surveys , 2007 .

[40]  Garth N. Foster,et al.  Effect of land disturbance and stress on species traits of ground beetle assemblages , 2001 .

[41]  William G. Lee,et al.  Functional richness, functional evenness and functional divergence: the primary components of functional diversity , 2005 .

[42]  Nessa E. O'Connor,et al.  BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING: DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN NUMBER AND IDENTITY OF SPECIES , 2005 .

[43]  P. Fong,et al.  Co-occurrence of habitat-modifying invertebrates: effects on structural and functional properties of a created salt marsh , 2005, Oecologia.

[44]  R. Hofstede,et al.  Climate induced increases in species richness of marine fishes , 2008 .

[45]  Michaela Aschan,et al.  Analysis of community attributes of the benthic macrofauna of Frierfjord/Langesundfjord and in a mesocosm experiment , 1988 .

[46]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Species Compensation and Complementarity in Ecosystem Function , 1995 .

[47]  K. I. Ugland,et al.  Are there differences in structure between marine and terrestrial assemblages , 2006 .

[48]  F. Jiguet,et al.  Climate envelope, life history traits and the resilience of birds facing global change , 2007 .

[49]  S. Díaz,et al.  Vive la différence: plant functional diversity matters to ecosystem processes , 2001 .

[50]  M. Luoto,et al.  Species traits are associated with the quality of bioclimatic models , 2008 .

[51]  Frédéric Médail,et al.  Species attributes and invasion success by alien plants on Mediterranean islands , 2005 .

[52]  Amy E. Miller,et al.  The consequence of species loss on ecosystem nitrogen cycling depends on community compensation , 2006, Oecologia.

[53]  John S. Gray,et al.  The impact of rare species on natural assemblages , 2005 .

[54]  Regina H. Magierowski,et al.  Robustness of surrogates of biodiversity in marine benthic communities. , 2006, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[55]  Wilfried Thuiller,et al.  Using niche‐based modelling to assess the impact of climate change on tree functional diversity in Europe , 2006 .

[56]  Owen L. Petchey,et al.  Functional diversity: back to basics and looking forward. , 2006, Ecology letters.

[57]  S. Rogers,et al.  Methods for describing ecological functioning of marine benthic assemblages using biological traits analysis (BTA) , 2006 .

[58]  B. Statzner,et al.  Taxonomic and biological trait differences of stream macroinvertebrate communities between mediterranean and temperate regions: implications for future climatic scenarios , 2007 .

[59]  S. Thrush,et al.  Rare species, habitat diversity and functional redundancy in marine benthos , 2007 .

[60]  B. Statzner,et al.  Invertebrate traits for the biomonitoring of large European rivers: an initial assessment of alternative metrics , 2003 .

[61]  Paul J. Somerfield,et al.  Global analysis of response and recovery of benthic biota to fishing , 2006 .

[62]  D. Cleary,et al.  Relating species traits of foraminifera to environmental variables in the Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia , 2007 .

[63]  B. Walker.  Biodiversity and Ecological Redundancy , 1992 .

[64]  N. Berezina.  Invasions of alien amphipods (Amphipoda: Gammaridea) in aquatic ecosystems of North-Western Russia: pathways and consequences , 2007, Hydrobiologia.

[65]  Tatsuya Amano,et al.  Ecological and life-history traits related to range contractions among breeding birds in Japan , 2007 .

[66]  S. Hawkins,et al.  Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning: emerging issues and their experimental test in aquatic environments , 2004 .

[67]  S. Dolédec,et al.  Co‐inertia analysis: an alternative method for studying species–environment relationships , 1994 .

[68]  S. Rogers,et al.  Biological traits of the North Sea benthos: does fishing affect benthic ecosystem function? , 2005 .

[69]  F. Chapin,et al.  EFFECTS OF BIODIVERSITY ON ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING: A CONSENSUS OF CURRENT KNOWLEDGE , 2005 .

[70]  J. Bell.  Contrasting patterns of species and functional composition of coral reef sponge assemblages , 2007 .

[71]  J. Bengtsson.  Which species? What kind of diversity? Which ecosystem function? Some problems in studies of relations between biodiversity and ecosystem function , 1998 .

[72]  J. Palutikof,et al.  Climate change 2007 : impacts, adaptation and vulnerability , 2001 .

[73]  David Mouillot,et al.  Limiting similarity, niche filtering and functional diversity in coastal lagoon fish communities , 2007 .

[74]  Kurt Jax,et al.  Function and “functioning” in ecology: what does it mean? , 2005 .

[75]  S. Schneider,et al.  Fingerprints of global warming on wild animals and plants , 2003, Nature.

[76]  D. Raffaelli,et al.  Bioturbation, ecosystem functioning and community structure , 2002 .

[77]  T. R. E. Southwood,et al.  HABITAT, THE TEMPLET FOR ECOLOGICAL STRATEGIES? , 1977 .

[78]  Guntram Weithoff,et al.  The concepts of ‘plant functional types’ and ‘functional diversity’ in lake phytoplankton – a new understanding of phytoplankton ecology? , 2003 .

[79]  Peter Poschlod,et al.  Conservation management of calcareous grasslands. Changes in plant species composition and response of functional traits during 25 years , 2002 .

[80]  J. Lawton,et al.  Organisms as ecosystem engineers , 1994 .

[81]  B. Enquist,et al.  Rebuilding community ecology from functional traits. , 2006, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[82]  C. Fonseca,et al.  Species functional redundancy, random extinctions and the stability of ecosystems , 2001 .

[83]  P. Somerfield,et al.  Taxonomic levels, in marine community studies, revisited , 1995 .

[84]  Stuart I. Rogers,et al.  Assessing functional diversity in marine benthic ecosystems: a comparison of approaches , 2003 .

[85]  S. Hawkins,et al.  Detection of environmental change in a marine ecosystem--evidence from the western English Channel. , 2003, The Science of the total environment.

[86]  J. Stachowicz,et al.  Why biodiversity is important to oceanography: potential roles of genetic, species, and trophic diversity in pelagic ecosystem processes , 2006 .

[87]  S. Naeem,et al.  Disentangling biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning: deriving solutions to a seemingly insurmountable problem , 2003 .

[88]  E. Siemann,et al.  Differences in morphological and physiological traits between native and invasive populations of Sapium sebiferum , 2007 .

[89]  S. Rogers,et al.  Matching biological traits to environmental conditions in marine benthic ecosystems , 2006 .

[90]  J. H. Burns.  Relatedness and environment affect traits associated with invasive and noninvasive introduced Commelinaceae. , 2006, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[91]  M. Sykes,et al.  Climate change threats to plant diversity in Europe. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[92]  S. Díaz,et al.  Plant functional types and ecosystem function in relation to global change , 1997 .

[93]  M. Zobel,et al.  The relative of species pools in determining plant species richness: an alternative explanation of species coexistence? , 1997, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[94]  Steve Sutherland,et al.  What makes a weed a weed: life history traits of native and exotic plants in the USA , 2004, Oecologia.

[95]  Jean Clobert,et al.  Climate warming, dispersal inhibition and extinction risk , 2008 .

[96]  N. Yoccoz,et al.  Selecting indicator traits for monitoring land use impacts: Birds in northern coastal birch forests , 2003 .

[97]  Jean-Louis Devineau,et al.  To what extent can simple plant biological traits account for the response of the herbaceous layer to environmental changes in fallow-savanna vegetation (West Burkina Faso, West Africa)? , 2005 .

[98]  Clarence Lehman,et al.  Conventional functional classification schemes underestimate the relationship with ecosystem functioning. , 2006, Ecology letters.

[99]  A. Harcourt,et al.  Rarity in the tropics: biogeography and macroecology of the primates , 2006 .

[100]  O. Eriksson,et al.  Functional response to land use change in grasslands: Comparing species and trait data , 2005 .

[101]  S. Hawkins,et al.  Effects of changing temperature on benthic marine life in Britain and Ireland , 2004 .

[102]  T. Wilbanks,et al.  Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2007 .

[103]  D. Mouillot,et al.  Is the abundance of species determined by their functional traits? A new method with a test using plant communities , 2007, Oecologia.

[104]  Daniel Chessel,et al.  A fuzzy coding approach for the analysis of long‐term ecological data , 1994 .

[105]  A. Gill,et al.  How plant life-history and ecological traits relate to species rarity and commonness at varying spatial scales , 2002 .

[106]  A. Acosta,et al.  Comparison of native and alien plant traits in Mediterranean coastal dunes , 2006 .

[107]  M. Grabowski,et al.  How to be an invasive gammarid (Amphipoda: Gammaroidea)–comparison of life history traits , 2007, Hydrobiologia.

[108]  Owen L. Petchey,et al.  Low functional diversity and no redundancy in British avian assemblages. , 2007, The Journal of animal ecology.

[109]  Richard Law,et al.  Fisheries-induced evolution: present status and future directions , 2007 .

[110]  C. Braak,et al.  Matching species traits to environmental variables: a new three-table ordination method , 1996, Environmental and Ecological Statistics.

[111]  S. Lavorel,et al.  Predicting changes in community composition and ecosystem functioning from plant traits: revisiting the Holy Grail , 2002 .

[112]  Michel J. Kaiser,et al.  Chronic bottom trawling alters the functional composition of benthic invertebrate communities on a sea-basin scale , 2006 .

[113]  Sylvain Dolédec,et al.  Species traits for future biomonitoring across ecoregions: patterns along a human-impacted river , 1999 .

[114]  David Mouillot,et al.  Functional regularity: a neglected aspect of functional diversity , 2004, Oecologia.

[115]  A. Hastings,et al.  Ecosystem engineering in space and time. , 2007, Ecology letters.

[116]  Garry D. Peterson,et al.  Response diversity, ecosystem change, and resilience , 2003 .

[117]  S. Rogers,et al.  Functional diversity of nematode communities in the southwestern North Sea. , 2007, Marine environmental research.

[118]  D. Cleary,et al.  Relating coral species traits to environmental conditions in the Jakarta Bay/Pulau Seribu reef system, Indonesia , 2007 .

[119]  K. R. Clarke,et al.  Quantifying structural redundancy in ecological communities , 1998, Oecologia.

[120]  C. Heip,et al.  Bioturbation: a fresh look at Darwin's last idea. , 2006, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[121]  Nicholas K Dulvy,et al.  Biology of extinction risk in marine fishes , 2005, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[122]  P. Usseglio-Polatera,et al.  Biomonitoring through biological traits of benthic macroinvertebrates: how to use species trait databases? , 2000, Hydrobiologia.

[123]  B. Halpern,et al.  Low functional redundancy in coastal marine assemblages , 2005 .

[124]  Dan Minchin,et al.  Aquaculture and transport in a changing environment: overlap and links in the spread of alien biota. , 2007, Marine pollution bulletin.

[125]  D. Thieltges,et al.  Wadden Sea mussel beds invaded by oysters and slipper limpets: competition or climate control? , 2006, Helgoland Marine Research.

[126]  D. Richardson,et al.  Interactions between environment, species traits, and human uses describe patterns of plant invasions. , 2006, Ecology.

[127]  N. LeRoy Poff,et al.  Life-history strategies predict fish invasions and extirpations in the colorado river basin , 2006 .

[128]  M. Lafont,et al.  Using aquatic macroinvertebrate species traits to build test batteries for sediment toxicity assessment: Accounting for the diversity of potential biological responses to toxicants , 2005, Environmental toxicology and chemistry.

[129]  Wilfried Thuiller,et al.  RELATING PLANT TRAITS AND SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS ALONG BIOCLIMATIC GRADIENTS FOR 88 LEUCADENDRON TAXA , 2004 .

[130]  S. Hawkins,et al.  The invasibility of marine algal assemblages: role of functional diversity and identity. , 2006, Ecology.

[131]  L. Henry,et al.  Multi-decadal changes in the megabenthos of the Bay of Fundy: the effects of fishing. , 2007 .

[132]  S. Thrush,et al.  Functional changes as indicators of trawling disturbance on a benthic community located in a fishing ground (NW Mediterranean Sea) , 2007 .