Incorporating plant functional diversity effects in ecosystem service assessments

Global environmental change affects the sustained provision of a wide set of ecosystem services. Although the delivery of ecosystem services is strongly affected by abiotic drivers and direct land use effects, it is also modulated by the functional diversity of biological communities (the value, range, and relative abundance of functional traits in a given ecosystem). The focus of this article is on integrating the different possible mechanisms by which functional diversity affects ecosystem properties that are directly relevant to ecosystem services. We propose a systematic way for progressing in understanding how land cover change affects these ecosystem properties through functional diversity modifications.…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 0452325, GEO-0452325
• EC
  European Commission
• CN
  Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
• II
  Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research

  Award: GEO-0452325
• FP
  Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica