title: Functional Rarity: The Ecology of Outliers.
abstract: Rarity has been a central topic for conservation and evolutionary biologists aiming to determine the species characteristics that cause extinction risk. More recently, beyond the rarity of species, the rarity of functions or functional traits, called functional rarity, has gained momentum in helping to understand the impact of biodiversity decline on ecosystem functioning. However, a conceptual framework for defining and quantifying functional rarity is still lacking. We introduce 12 different forms of functional rarity along gradients of species scarcity and trait distinctiveness. We then highlight the potential key role of functional rarity in the long-term and large-scale maintenance of ecosystem processes, as well as the necessary linkage between functional and evolutionary rarity.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 5175, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Montpellier, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Montpellier, France. Electronic address: cyrille.violle@cefe.cnrs.fr.
authors.forename: Cyrille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Violle
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LECA (Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine), F-38000 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Thuiller
authors.affiliation: CNRS UMR 5554, Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, Université de Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France; Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation, and Conservation (MARBEC), UMR 9190 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-CNRS-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Université Montpellier, Montpellier , France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mouquet
authors.affiliation: Université de Montpellier, botAnique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des végétations (AMAP), Montpellier CEDEX 5, France; French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry 605001, India.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Munoz
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan J B
authors.initials: NJB
authors.lastname: Kraft
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Marc W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Cadotte
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical and Environmental Science, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Stuart W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Livingstone
authors.affiliation: Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation, and Conservation (MARBEC), UMR 9190 Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-CNRS-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Université Montpellier, Montpellier , France; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mouillot
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem