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Functional trait effects on ecosystem stability: assembling the jigsaw puzzle.

Francesco de Bello¹, Sandra Lavorel², Lauren M Hallett³

¹Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, 37005 České Budějovice, Czech Republic; Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 37901 Třeboň, Czech Republic; Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación (CSIC-UV-GV), 46113, Valencia, Spain.

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

|June 5, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Biological diversity stabilizes ecosystems by linking functional traits to temporal stability. Understanding these trait-stability mechanisms is crucial for predicting ecosystem responses to global change.

Keywords:

community weighted mean compensatory dynamics functional diversity and redundancy insurance effect trait probability density

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Environmental Science
Biodiversity Research

Background:

Global change poses fundamental questions about maintaining biological diversity and ecosystem services over time.
Ecologists debate mechanisms linking local biodiversity to the temporal stability of ecosystem properties.
Functional traits of organisms are increasingly recognized as key drivers of these stability mechanisms.

Purpose of the Study:

To review potential trait-stability mechanisms and their empirical testing.
To identify trait-based components influencing ecosystem stability under environmental fluctuations.
To provide a comprehensive framework for future research on trait-stability effects.

Main Methods:

Literature review of ecological theories and empirical evidence.
Analysis of trait-based components and their relationship to stability mechanisms.
Synthesis of different trait-stability effects to form a comprehensive picture.

Main Results:

Functional traits mediate the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
Various trait-based components can either buffer or amplify environmental fluctuations.
A framework is presented that integrates different trait-stability mechanisms.

Conclusions:

Trait-stability relationships are central to understanding ecosystem resilience under global change.
Future empirical and modeling studies should focus on these trait-based components.
This integrated view guides research on how biodiversity maintains ecosystem functioning over time.