TY - JOUR
T1 - How to improve scaling from traits to ecosystem processes
AU - Chacón-Labella, Julia
AU - Hinojo-Hinojo, Cesar
AU - Bohner, Teresa
AU - Castorena, Matiss
AU - Violle, Cyrille
AU - Vandvik, Vigdis
AU - Enquist, Brian J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Aud Haltbritter, Brian Maitner, Hugo Saiz, Carlos Carmona, and an anonymous reviewer for providing valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. J.C-L. was supported by the project 287784 EXPERTS of the Norwegian Research Council and by a 'María Zambrano' fellowship of the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation . B.J.E. and C.V. acknowledge the FREE group funded by the Centre for Synthesis and Analysis for Biodiversity (CESAB) of the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) and Electricité de France (EDF). B.J.E. and J.C-L. acknowledge support from the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area funded by the US Department of Energy , Office of Science , Office of Biological and Environmental Research under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 . B.J.E., C.H-H, T.B., and M.C. acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (NSF; HDR-1934790 , NSF ABI-1565118 , and BoCP-2225076 ). B.J.E. and T.B. are supported by the University of Arizona Bridging Biodiversity and Conservation Science program. The figures were created with BioRender.com .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/3
Y1 - 2023/3
N2 - Scaling approaches in ecology assume that traits are the main attributes by which organisms influence ecosystem functioning. However, several recent empirical papers have found only weak links between traits and ecosystem functioning, questioning the usefulness of trait-based ecology (TBE). We argue that these studies often suffer from one or more widespread misconceptions. Specifically, these studies often (i) conflict with the conceptual foundations of TBE, (ii) lack theory- or hypothesis-driven selection and use of traits, (iii) tend to ignore intraspecific variation, and (iv) use experimental or study designs that are not well suited to make strong tests of TBE assumptions. Addressing these aspects could significantly improve our ability to scale from traits to ecosystem functioning.
AB - Scaling approaches in ecology assume that traits are the main attributes by which organisms influence ecosystem functioning. However, several recent empirical papers have found only weak links between traits and ecosystem functioning, questioning the usefulness of trait-based ecology (TBE). We argue that these studies often suffer from one or more widespread misconceptions. Specifically, these studies often (i) conflict with the conceptual foundations of TBE, (ii) lack theory- or hypothesis-driven selection and use of traits, (iii) tend to ignore intraspecific variation, and (iv) use experimental or study designs that are not well suited to make strong tests of TBE assumptions. Addressing these aspects could significantly improve our ability to scale from traits to ecosystem functioning.
KW - biodiversity effects
KW - ecosystem functioning
KW - functional traits
KW - scaling
KW - trait-based ecology
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U2 - 10.1016/j.tree.2022.10.007
DO - 10.1016/j.tree.2022.10.007
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85142734030
SN - 0169-5347
VL - 38
SP - 228
EP - 237
JO - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
JF - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
IS - 3
ER -