title: Functional identity and diversity of animals predict ecosystem functioning better than species-based indices.
abstract: Drastic biodiversity declines have raised concerns about the deterioration of ecosystem functions and have motivated much recent research on the relationship between species diversity and ecosystem functioning. A functional trait framework has been proposed to improve the mechanistic understanding of this relationship, but this has rarely been tested for organisms other than plants. We analysed eight datasets, including five animal groups, to examine how well a trait-based approach, compared with a more traditional taxonomic approach, predicts seven ecosystem functions below- and above-ground. Trait-based indices consistently provided greater explanatory power than species richness or abundance. The frequency distributions of single or multiple traits in the community were the best predictors of ecosystem functioning. This implies that the ecosystem functions we investigated were underpinned by the combination of trait identities (i.e. single-trait indices) and trait complementarity (i.e. multi-trait indices) in the communities. Our study provides new insights into the general mechanisms that link biodiversity to ecosystem functioning in natural animal communities and suggests that the observed responses were due to the identity and dominance patterns of the trait composition rather than the number or abundance of species per se.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala 75007, Sweden.
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gagic
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala 75007, Sweden Departamento de Ecología Integrativa, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Sevilla 41092, Spain nacho.bartomeus@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ignasi
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bartomeus
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala 75007, Sweden.
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jonsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala 75007, Sweden.
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala 75007, Sweden.
authors.forename: Camilla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Winqvist
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Technische Universität München, Restoration Ecology, Emil-Ramann-Strasse 6, Freising 85354, Germany.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
authors.forename: Eleanor M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Slade
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocentre, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, Würzburg 97074, Germany.
authors.forename: Ingolf
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Steffan-Dewenter
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Medical Biology Centre, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Emmerson
authors.affiliation: School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, Reading University, Reading RG6 6AR, UK.
authors.forename: Simon G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Potts
authors.affiliation: Department of Agroecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Teja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tscharntke
authors.affiliation: Terrestrial Ecology Research Group, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, Center for Food and Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, Freising 85354, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Weisser
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala 75007, Sweden.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bommarco
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009348:Nematoda / Q000502:physiology*; D009835:Oligochaeta / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: biocontrol; biodiversity; dung removal; functional traits; nutrient cycling; pollination