How to measure response diversity

作者：Samuel R. P.‐J. Ross, Owen L. Petchey, Takehiro Sasaki, David Armitage · 发表于：Methods in Ecology and Evolution · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1111/2041-210x.14087 · 被引用次数：52 · 研究领域：Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Plant and animal studies、Species Distribution and Climate Change

Abstract The insurance effect of biodiversity—that diversity stabilises aggregate ecosystem properties—is mechanistically underlain by inter‐ and intraspecific trait variation in organismal responses to the environment. This variation, termed response diversity , is therefore a potentially critical determinant of ecological stability. However, response diversity has yet to be widely quantified, possibly due to difficulties in its measurement. Even when it has been measured, approaches have varied. Here, we review methods for measuring response diversity and from them distil a methodological framework for quantifying response diversity from experimental and/or observational data, which can be practically applied in laboratory and field settings across a range of taxa. Previous empirical studies on response diversity most commonly invoke response traits as proxies aimed at capturing species' ecological responses to the environment. Our approach, which is based on environment‐dependent ecological responses to any biotic or abiotic environmental variable, is conceptually simple and robust to any form of environmental response, including nonlinear responses. Given its derivation from empirical data on species' ecological responses, this approach should more directly reflect response diversity than the trait‐based approach dominant in the literature. By capturing even subtle inter‐ or intraspecific variation in environmental responses, and environment dependencies in response diver...