Contrasting responses of functional diversity to major losses in taxonomic diversity
Abstract
Global biodiversity consists not only of the sum of taxonomic units such as species, but also of their ecological or functional variety. These two components of biodiversity might be expected to rise or fall in tandem, but we find they are capable of strikingly independent behavior. In three major declines in taxonomic diversity—spatially from equator to poles today and temporally in the Permian-Triassic and Cretaceous-Paleogene extinctions—only the first one shows a concomitant drop in the number of functional groups, whereas virtually all functional categories survived the extinction events. We present a conceptual framework for understanding this contrast, and we suggest that the differing behavior of these two biodiversity components will be important in anticipating the impacts of impending losses in today's biota.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- January 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1717636115
- Bibcode:
- 2018PNAS..115..732E