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Phylogenetic diversity and the functioning of ecosystems.
Ecol Lett. 2012 May 15
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08 Jun 2012
Controversial, Interesting Hypothesis
DOI: 10.3410/f.716197981.791803067
Phylogenetic and functional diversity can have a strong relationship. In this attractive paper, the authors stress the need for bridging evolutionary biology and ecosystem ecology for a deeper understanding of how biodiversity can affect ecosystem functioning.
Linking biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is a current major challenge in ecology. So far, most research attempts have explored this relationship focusing on species richness. However, biodiversity is more than species richness, and the identity of species and their interactions, i.e. the roles they play and interplay, could be even more important than their number {1}.
What a given species is and does within communities and ecosystems, and how it relates to other species, derives from its evolutionary history; hence, phylogenetic diversity (PD) could encapsulate crucial information about functional aspects of biodiversity. Such a relationship between phylogenetic and functional diversity (FD) has been highlighted within single groups of organisms (e.g. trophic groups), interactive groups (e.g. predator-prey relations), and ecological networks (e.g. food webs).
However, as the authors caution, there is no room for hasty general conclusions, since the extent to which PD conveys FD may depend on several factors and the study of PD's effect on ecosystem functioning is in its infancy.
The relation between PD and FD assumes the existence of phylogenetic signals (i.e. the tendency of closely related species to be more functionally similar than distant relatives). Thus, the strength of such a relation will depend on the amount of functional traits showing a phylogenetic signal.
Although a given group of organisms showed a strong phylogenetic signal, the strength of the PD-FD relation may be nevertheless reduced in real communities, as they could be influenced by community assembly processes. For instance, when either biotic or abiotic factors are the driving forces for structuring communities, PD-FD relations could be weak if traits important for functions are not correlated with those important for competitive dominance or for environmental adaptability. In addition, most groups of organisms are still far from being exhaustively resolved from a phylogenetic point of view, often preventing accurate measures of PD.
The authors also outlined that studies on phylogenetic signal and PD-FD relations mostly concern plant species, while few contributions investigate such relations in animals. We want to point out, moreover, that, beyond this, the research on this topic is strongly unbalanced in favor of terrestrial species, whereas marine organisms are almost completely ignored. This bias is likely to hamper general inferences on PD-FD relations, as mechanisms underlying speciation and community assembly may be different between terrestrial and marine environments {2}, and future research should deserve much more attention on this neglected aspect.
It is also important to consider that, often, divergent phylogenies might lead to convergent functions, when phylogenetically distant species are subjected to identical pressures, leading them to perform almost identical ecological roles.
We strongly recommend this paper because it clarifies reasons, evidence, and caveats underlying the potential link between PD and FD, providing a fascinating perspective for integrating evolutionary history and functional ecology in the future research on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships.
References
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Speciation in the sea: overview of the symposium and discussion of future directions.
Integr Comp Biol. 2011 Sep; 51(3): 449-55
PMID: 21593140
DOI: 10.1093/icb/icr024
2.
The Influence of Functional Diversity and Composition on Ecosystem Processes.
Science 1997; 277(5330)1300-2
DOI: 10.1126/science.277.5330.1300
Disclosures
None declared
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Boero F and Bevilacqua S: F1000Prime Recommendation of [Srivastava DS et al., Ecol Lett 2012]. In F1000Prime, 08 Jun 2012; DOI: 10.3410/f.716197981.791803067. F1000Prime.com/716197981#eval791803067
F1000Prime Recommendations, Dissents and Comments for [Srivastava DS et al., Ecol Lett 2012]. In F1000Prime, 18 Jun 2013; F1000Prime.com/716197981
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Phylogenetic diversity (PD) describes the total amount of phylogenetic distance among species in a community. Although there has been substantial research on the factors that determine community PD, exploration of the consequences of PD for ecosystem functioning is just beginning. We argue that PD may be useful in predicting ecosystem functions in a range of communities, from single-trophic to complex networks. Many traits show a phylogenetic signal, suggesting that PD can estimate the functional trait space of a community, and thus ecosystem functioning. Phylogeny also determines interactions among species, and so could help predict how extinctions cascade through ecological networks and thus impact ecosystem functions. Although the initial evidence available suggests patterns consistent with these predictions, we caution that the utility of PD depends critically on the strength of phylogenetic signals to both traits and interactions. We advocate for a synthetic approach that incorporates a deeper understanding of how traits and interactions are shaped by evolution, and outline key areas for future research. If these complexities can be incorporated into future studies, relationships between PD and ecosystem function bear promise in conceptually unifying evolutionary biology with ecosystem ecology.
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/CNRS.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01795.x
PMID: 22583836
