INVESTIGADORES
OJEDA Ricardo Alberto
artículos
Título:
Assessing the Use of Functional Diversity as a Measure of Ecological Resilience in Arid Rangelands
Autor/es:
CHILLO, V., ANAND M., OJEDA, RA
Revista:
ECOSYSTEMS (NEW YORK. PRINT)
Editorial:
SPRINGER
Referencias:
Año: 2011 p. 1 - 5
ISSN:
1432-9840
Resumen:
It is becoming more apparent that species richness
alone many not be sufficient to fully understand
ecosystem resilience but that functional diversity
(diversity of species having similar effects on an
ecosystem process) may be more relevant. In particular,
response diversity (diversity of species that
respond differently to disturbance) within functional
groups (FG) is suggested to be critical for
resilience. We assess for the first time the use of
response diversity as a measure of resilience in an
empirical study. Our experimental design consisted
of sites with three disturbance intensities during a
grazing exclosure period and the same sites, 1 year
later, after grazing. Plant FGs were identified based
on effect traits related to nutrient cycling and soil
retention, and species richness within groups was
assessed during exclosure and after grazing. To
assess if response diversity could predict loss of
species richness (resilience analysis), response
diversity was calculated only during the exclosure
period, based on traits related to grazing tolerance.
We also assessed the contribution of richness to
response diversity during exclosure (redundancy
analysis). Response diversity was significantly and
highly correlated with species richness within FGs
during disturbance. That is, FGs with the lowest
response diversity were the most affected, disappearing
when disturbance appeared. Richness
within FGs during exclosure was not significantly
correlated with response diversity, showing that
higher richness does not ensure resilience. We
conclude that response diversity can be used to
predict which FGs are more resilient,and hence,
less vulnerable to future disturbance.