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Legras, G., Loiseau, N., Gaertner, J. - C., Poggiale, J. - C., & Gaertner-Mazouni, N. (2020). Assessing functional diversity: the influence of the number of the functional traits. Theor. Ecol., 13(1), 117–126.
Résumé: The impact of the variation of the number of functional traits on functional diversity assessment is still poorly known. Although the covariation between these two parameters may be desirable in some situations (e.g. if adding functional traits provides relevant new functional information), it may also result from mathematical artefacts and lead to misinterpretation of the results obtained. Here, we have tested the behaviour of a set of nine indices widely used for assessing the three main components of functional diversity (i.e. functional richness, evenness and divergence), according to the variation in the number of functional traits. We found that the number of functional traits may strongly impact the values of most of the indices considered, whatever the functional information they contain. The FRic, TOP and n-hypervolume indices that have been developed to characterize the functional richness component appeared to be highly sensitive to the variation in the number of traits considered. Regarding functional divergence, most of the indices considered (i.e. Q, FDis and FSpe) also showed a high degree of sensitivity to the number of traits considered. In contrast, we found that indices used to compute functional evenness (FEve and Ru), as well as one of the indices related to functional divergence (FDiv), are weakly influenced by the variation in the number of traits. All these results suggest that interpretation of most of the functional diversity indices considered cannot only be based on their values as they are, but requires taking into account the way in which they have been computed.
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Manna, L. R., Villeger, S., Rezende, C. F., & Mazzoni, R. (2019). High intraspecific variability in morphology and diet in tropical stream fish communities. Ecol. Freshw. Fish, 28(1), 41–52.
Résumé: Functional diversity of fish communities has been measured according to (a) interspecific variability, assuming that intraspecific variability is negligible, or (b) morphological differences, as good descriptors of complex functions, such as diet. These two assumptions have been scarcely tested on the individual level, especially in species-rich tropical ecosystems. Here, we adapted intraspecific specialisation (ISpe) and intraspecific originality indices (IOri) to assess complementary components of intraspecific variability. Next, we applied these indices to evaluate the intra- and interspecific variability of morphological and diet traits in two contrasting Brazilian stream-dwelling fish assemblages (rainforest and savannah). We also compared correlations between morphology and diet at the individual and species level to test whether accounting for intraspecific variability increases the predictability of diet due to morphological differences. Significant contributions of intraspecific variability to differences between fish were revealed for morphology and diet. Intraspecific variability in the diet was higher than that in morphology in both assemblages. The ISpe was positively correlated to IOri in the diet of both ecosystems. The morphological-dietary relationships were significant but weak at both individual and species levels. Our findings highlight the importance of measuring individual variability and accounting for complementary components of the intraspecific variability (ISpe and IOri). Importantly, we showed that the variability in morphology does not predict diet variability at both intra- and interspecific levels. Thus, high intraspecific variability in morphology and diet challenges the use of functional traits measured at the species level to describe the functional diversity of different fish assemblages.
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Queiros, Q., Fromentin, J. - M., Astruc, G., Bauer, R. K., & Saraux, C. (2018). Dolphin predation pressure on pelagic and demersal fish in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Mar. Ecol.-Prog. Ser., 603, 13–27.
Résumé: Sardine Sardina pilchardus, anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus and European hake Merluccius merluccius represent a significant part of the commercial landings in the Gulf of Lions (northwestern Mediterranean Sea). However, their stocks have shown severe declines during the last decades due to fishing pressure and/or environmental changes. The aim of this study was to estimate the current predation pressure of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus and striped dolphins Stenella coeruleoalba – which are abundant in the area-on sardine, anchovy and hake. To do so, we developed an original approach based on several data sets and models (aerial surveys, stomach contents, allometric and stock assessment models) and Monte Carlo simulations to incorporate various sources of uncertainty due to data limitations. Despite the uncertainties, the results showed that dolphin predation pressure on sardine and anchovy was extremely low in the Gulf of Lions (all simulations <0.5 % of the available stock), indicating little impact of dolphins on those populations. However, significant predation pressure on hake (median value: 23 %) was detected, a value which might have doubled in the last 30 yr because of hake overfishing. Overexploitation has thus reinforced the natural mortality of hake due to dolphin predation, but this predation pressure remains 2 to 3 times lower than that exerted by fisheries.
Mots-Clés: Anchovy; artisanal fisheries; bottle-nosed dolphins; Bottlenose dolphin; cetaceans reveals; delphinus-delphis; European hake; Gulf of Lions; longline fisheries; marine ecosystem; Predation pressure; Sardine; stenella-coeruleoalba; Striped dolphin; striped-dolphin; Top-down effect; trophic cascades; tursiops-truncatus
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Teixido, N., Gambi, M. C., Parravacini, V., Kroeker, K., Micheli, F., Villeger, S., et al. (2018). Functional biodiversity loss along natural CO2 gradients. Nat. Commun., 9, 5149.
Résumé: The effects of environmental change on biodiversity are still poorly understood. In particular, the consequences of shifts in species composition for marine ecosystem function are largely unknown. Here we assess the loss of functional diversity, i.e. the range of species biological traits, in benthic marine communities exposed to ocean acidification (OA) by using natural CO2 vent systems. We found that functional richness is greatly reduced with acidification, and that functional loss is more pronounced than the corresponding decrease in taxonomic diversity. In acidified conditions, most organisms accounted for a few functional entities (i.e. unique combination of functional traits), resulting in low functional redundancy. These results suggest that functional richness is not buffered by functional redundancy under OA, even in highly diverse assemblages, such as rocky benthic communities.
Mots-Clés: carbon; community; consequences; diversity; fish; impact; ocean acidification; redundancy; reveals; vulnerability
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Villeger, S., Maire, E., & Leprieur, F. (2017). On the risks of using dendrograms to measure functional diversity and multidimensional spaces to measure phylogenetic diversity: a comment on Sobral et al. (2016). Ecol. Lett., 20(4), 554–557.
Résumé: Sobral et al. (Ecology Letters, 19, 2016, 1091) reported that the loss of bird functional and phylogenetic diversity due to species extinctions was not compensated by exotic species introductions. Here, we demonstrate that the reported changes in biodiversity were underestimated because of methodological pitfalls.
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