Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology, University of Maine, 5755 Nutting Hall, Orono, ME 04469, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2020 Dec 9;287(1940):20201713. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1713.
Understanding factors affecting the functional diversity of ecological communities is an important goal for ecologists and conservationists. Previous work has largely been conducted at the community level; however, recent studies have highlighted the critical importance of considering intraspecific functional diversity (i.e. the functional diversity of phenotypic traits among conspecifics). Further, a major limitation of existing literature on this topic is the lack of empirical studies examining functional diversity of -including animal personalities. This is a major shortcoming because personality traits can affect the fitness of individuals, and the composition of personalities in a population can have important ecological consequences. Our study aims to contribute to filling this knowledge gap by investigating factors affecting the functional diversity of personality traits in wild animal populations. Specifically, we predicted that the richness, divergence and evenness associated with personality traits would be impacted by key components of forest structure and would vary between contrasting forest types. To achieve our objective we conducted a fully replicated large-scale field experiment over a 4 year period using small mammal populations as a model system. We found that greater heterogeneity in the cover of shrubs, coarse woody debris and canopy cover was associated with a greater richness, lower divergence and lower evenness in personality traits. Greater population density was associated with greater functional richness and lower functional divergence and evenness of personality traits. To maintain a behaviourally diverse population and its associated functions, managers may promote heterogeneity in vegetation and increased population density, which we found to be the most important determinants driving functional diversity of personality traits.
理解影响生态群落功能多样性的因素是生态学家和保护主义者的一个重要目标。以前的工作主要在群落水平上进行；然而，最近的研究强调了考虑种内功能多样性（即同种个体之间表型特征的功能多样性）的关键重要性。此外，关于这个主题的现有文献的一个主要局限性是缺乏实证研究来检验包括动物个性在内的功能多样性。这是一个主要的缺点，因为个性特征会影响个体的适应能力，而种群中个性的组成可能会产生重要的生态后果。我们的研究旨在通过调查影响野生动物种群个性特征功能多样性的因素来弥补这一知识空白。具体来说，我们预测个性特征的丰富度、发散度和均匀度将受到森林结构的关键组成部分的影响，并在不同的森林类型之间有所不同。为了实现我们的目标，我们使用小型哺乳动物种群作为模型系统，在 4 年的时间里进行了一项完全复制的大规模野外实验。我们发现，灌木、粗木质残体和冠层覆盖的覆盖物的异质性越大，个性特征的丰富度越大，发散度越低，均匀度越低。较大的种群密度与较高的功能丰富度和较低的功能发散和均匀度相关。为了维持行为多样化的种群及其相关功能，管理者可能会促进植被的异质性和种群密度的增加，我们发现这是驱动个性特征功能多样性的最重要决定因素。
