Baker Nathan Jay, Pilotto Francesca, Haubrock Phillip Joschka, Beudert Burkhard, Haase Peter
Department of River Ecology and Conservation Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt Gelnhausen Germany.
Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies Environmental Archaeology Lab Umeå University Umeå Sweden.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Nov 23;11(23):17471-17484. doi: 10.1002/ece3.8381. eCollection 2021 Dec.
While there has been increasing interest in how taxonomic diversity is changing over time, less is known about how long-term taxonomic changes may affect ecosystem functioning and resilience. Exploring long-term patterns of functional diversity can provide key insights into the capacity of a community to carry out ecological processes and the redundancy of species' roles. We focus on a protected freshwater system located in a national park in southeast Germany. We use a high-resolution benthic macroinvertebrate dataset spanning 32 years (1983-2014) and test whether changes in functional diversity are reflected in taxonomic diversity using a multidimensional trait-based approach and regression analyses. Specifically, we asked: (i) How has functional diversity changed over time? (ii) How functionally distinct are the community's taxa? (iii) Are changes in functional diversity concurrent with taxonomic diversity? And (iv) what is the extent of community functional redundancy? Resultant from acidification mitigation, macroinvertebrate taxonomic diversity increased over the study period. Recovery of functional diversity was less pronounced, lagging behind responses of taxonomic diversity. Over multidecadal timescales, the macroinvertebrate community has become more homogenous with a high degree of functional redundancy, despite being isolated from direct anthropogenic activity. While taxonomic diversity increased over time, functional diversity has yet to catch up. These results demonstrate that anthropogenic pressures can remain a threat to biotic communities even in protected areas. The differences in taxonomic and functional recovery processes highlight the need to incorporate functional traits in assessments of biodiversity responses to global change.
虽然人们对分类多样性如何随时间变化的兴趣日益浓厚，但对于长期的分类变化可能如何影响生态系统功能和恢复力却知之甚少。探索功能多样性的长期模式可以为群落执行生态过程的能力以及物种角色的冗余性提供关键见解。我们聚焦于德国东南部一个国家公园内的受保护淡水系统。我们使用了一个跨度为32年（1983年至2014年）的高分辨率底栖大型无脊椎动物数据集，并采用基于多维度性状的方法和回归分析来测试功能多样性的变化是否反映在分类多样性中。具体而言，我们提出了以下问题：（i）功能多样性随时间如何变化？（ii）群落的分类单元在功能上有多大差异？（iii）功能多样性的变化与分类多样性是否同步？以及（iv）群落功能冗余的程度如何？由于酸化缓解措施，在研究期间大型无脊椎动物的分类多样性有所增加。功能多样性的恢复不太明显，落后于分类多样性的响应。在数十年的时间尺度上，尽管与直接的人为活动隔绝，但大型无脊椎动物群落变得更加同质化，具有高度的功能冗余。虽然分类多样性随时间增加，但功能多样性尚未跟上。这些结果表明，即使在保护区，人为压力仍然可能对生物群落构成威胁。分类和功能恢复过程的差异凸显了在评估生物多样性对全球变化的响应时纳入功能性状的必要性。
