The effects of functional biodiversity on ecosystem processes, ecosystem services and sustainability: an interdisciplinary approach

DÍAZ, SANDRA; PÉREZ HARGUINDEGUY, NATALIA; QUETIER, FABIEN; DIVERSUS RESEARCH CONSORTIUM

Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá

Simposio; Climate Change and Biodiversity in the Americas; 2008

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute & Environment Canada

Global environmental change is threatening the sustainability of socio-ecological systems all over the world. This is a particularly critical problem in areas of high socio-economic vulnerability and low degree of ecosystem artificialization, such as most of Latin America. In this process, biodiversity is not only a response variable in the face of changes in climate and land use, but also a driving factor affecting human well-being through its effects on ecosystem processes and their derived ecosystem services. Within this framework, DiverSus is an IAI Collaborative Research Network that uses an interdisciplinary approach to integrate functional biodiversity effects on ecosystem properties with social evaluations of ecosystem services and their sustainability. We have developed a framework centered in the concept of functional diversity, or the value, range, and relative abundance of functional traits in a given community. There is growing evidence that it is functional diversity, rather than species diversity what matters the most for the ecosystem processes at the base of human subsistence and well-being. Standard protocols to quantify functional traits and their diversity are now available, especially for plants. We are carrying out the first large-scale comparison of vascular plant functional diversity under different land use regimes and different degrees of climatic control (stronger in cold/arid systems, weaker in moist tropical systems) in the Americas, from tundra to dry forests and rainforests. Through interdisciplinary work with social scientists, we will link functional diversity with ecosystem processes and services perceived by different social actors. This is particularly relevant because the provision of an ecosystem service for one social group often means the loss of ecosystem services highly valued by other groups. This may lead to social conflict, alliances, and unequal impacts of land use change on different sectors of society. We claim that our general approach represents a promising way to understand how changes in functional biodiversity impact different bundles of ecosystem services, and how this can modify the sustainability of socio-ecological systems in the region, and the power balance within and among them