Defining and measuring ecological specialization

Summary 1. Ecological specialization is one of the main concepts in ecology and conservation. However, this concept has become highly context‐dependent and is now obscured by the great variability of existing definitions and methods used to characterize ecological specialization. 2. In this study, we clarify this concept by reviewing the strengths and limitations of different approaches commonly used to define and measure ecological specialization. We first show that ecological specialization can either be considered as reflecting species’ requirements or species’ impacts. We then explain how specialization depends on species‐specific characteristics and on local and contingent environmental constraints. We…

• AN
  Agence Nationale de la Recherche

  Awards: ANR-05-BDIV-014, ANR-05, ANR-07-BDIV-014
• CN
  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  Award: EC2CO
• IN
  Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique