Christopher J Ellis, Johan Asplund, Renato Benesperi, Cristina Branquinho, Luca Di Nuzzo, Pilar Hurtado, Isabel Martínez, Paula Matos, Juri Nascimbene, Pedro Pinho, María Prieto, Bernardo Rocha, Clara Rodríguez-Arribas, Holger Thüs, Paolo Giordani
Community ecology has experienced a major transition, from a focus on patterns in taxonomic composition, to revealing the processes underlying community assembly through the analysis of species functional traits. The power of the functional trait approach is its generality, predictive capacity such as with respect to environmental change, and, through linkage of response and effect traits, the synthesis of community assembly with ecosystem function and services. Lichens are a potentially rich source of information about how traits govern community structure and function, thereby creating opportunity to better integrate lichens into 'mainstream' ecological studies, while lichen ecology and conservation can also benefit from using the trait approach as an investigative tool...
April 6, 2021: Microorganisms