Low functional redundancy in coastal marine assemblages

作者：Fiorenza Micheli, Benjamin S. Halpern · 发表于：Ecology Letters · 年份：2005 · DOI：10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00731.x · 被引用次数：552 · 研究领域：Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies、Marine and coastal plant biology、Marine and fisheries research

Abstract The relationship between species and functional diversity remains poorly understood for nearly all ecosystem types, yet determining this relationship is critically important for developing both a mechanistic understanding of community assembly and appropriate expectations and approaches to protecting and restoring biological communities. Here we use two distinct data sets, one from kelp forests in the Channel Islands, California, and one from a global synthesis of marine reserves, to directly test how variation in species diversity translates into changes in functional diversity. We find strong positive relationships between species and functional diversity, and increased functional diversity of fish assemblages coinciding with recovery of species diversity in marine reserves, independent of the method used for classifying species in functional groups. These results indicate that low levels of redundancy in functional species traits exist across a suite of marine systems, and that fishing tends to remove whole functional groups from coastal marine ecosystems.