Functional Rarity: an additional biodiversity facet

Functional rarity also called functional originality or trait originality is the characteristic of species (or any other biological unit) that makes it different relative to a well defined set.

Why are original species interesting? Original species can provide: irreplaceable trait, meaning that original species disappear no other species are going to present the same trait values in the set; original specis may also represent original ecological strategies, if the trait space represents the niche space well then original species show original strategies; finally original species can help uncover specific community assembly processes, or combination of processes because they are not well predicted nor accounted for by current theories.

Through the Functional Rarity in Ecology and Evolution synthesis group funded by the CESAB, we discuss and test new ideas regarding functional rarity.

Publications

Although how rare species persist in communities is a major ecological question, the critical phenotypic dimension of rarity is broadly …

Current models of island biogeography treat endemic and non-endemic species as if they were functionally equivalent, focussing …

Emphasis has been put in recent ecological research on investigating phylogenetic, functional and taxonomic facets of biological …

Trait-based ecology aims to understand the processes that generate the overarching diversity of organismal traits and their influence …

Characterizing functional diversity has become central in ecological research and for biodiversity assessment. Understanding the role …

Emphasis has been put in recent ecological research on investigating phylogenetic, functional and taxonomic facets of biological …

Talks

Talk Award from the French Society of Ecology