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Global functional diversity of freshwater fish is concentrated in the Neotropics while functional vulnerability is widespread.

ABSTRACT: Worldwide biodiversity assessments have mainly focused on species richness but little is known about the diversity of species roles, i.e. functional diversity, while this is a key facet to understanding the consequences of global changes on the ecosystem services to human societies. Here, we report the world pattern of functional diversity of freshwater fish using a database encompassing morphological characteristics of more than 9,000 species. The Neotropical realm hosts more than 75% of global functional diversity while other realms each host less than 25%. This discrepancy is mediated by high functional uniqueness in some diversified Neotropical fish orders. Surprisingly, functional diversity patterns were weakly related to functional vulnerability. In the Neotropics the loss of threatened species will cause a limited loss of functional diversity (<10%) whereas in the Nearctic and Palearctic realms, decline of the functional diversity will reach 43% and 33%, respectively, conferring a high functional vulnerability to these realms. Conservation of the Neotropical fish diversity is a key target to maintain world fish functional diversity, but this should not hide the pressing need to conserve the vulnerable fish faunas of the rest of the world, in which functional diversity is to a large extent supported by threatened species.

SUBMITTER: Toussaint A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4793233 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Global functional diversity of freshwater fish is concentrated in the Neotropics while functional vulnerability is widespread.

Toussaint A A Charpin N N Brosse S S Villéger S S

Scientific reports 20160316

Worldwide biodiversity assessments have mainly focused on species richness but little is known about the diversity of species roles, i.e. functional diversity, while this is a key facet to understanding the consequences of global changes on the ecosystem services to human societies. Here, we report the world pattern of functional diversity of freshwater fish using a database encompassing morphological characteristics of more than 9,000 species. The Neotropical realm hosts more than 75% of global ...[more]

PMID: 26980070

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Project description:AimGlobal-scale studies are required to identify broad-scale patterns in the distributions of species, to evaluate the processes that determine diversity and to determine how similar or different these patterns and processes are among different groups of freshwater species. Broad-scale patterns of spatial variation in species distribution are central to many fundamental questions in macroecology and conservation biology. We aimed to evaluate how congruent three commonly used metrics of diversity were among taxa for six groups of freshwater species.LocationGlobal.MethodsWe compiled geographical range data on 7083 freshwater species of mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, crabs and crayfish to evaluate how species richness, richness of threatened species and endemism are distributed across freshwater ecosystems. We evaluated how congruent these measures of diversity were among taxa at a global level for a grid cell size of just under 1°.ResultsWe showed that although the risk of extinction faced by freshwater decapods is quite similar to that of freshwater vertebrates, there is a distinct lack of spatial congruence in geographical range between different taxonomic groups at this spatial scale, and a lack of congruence among three commonly used metrics of biodiversity. The risk of extinction for freshwater species was consistently higher than for their terrestrial counterparts.Main conclusionsWe demonstrate that broad-scale patterns of species richness, threatened-species richness and endemism lack congruence among the six freshwater taxonomic groups examined. Invertebrate species are seldom taken into account in conservation planning. Our study suggests that both the metric of biodiversity and the identity of the taxa on which conservation decisions are based require careful consideration. As geographical range information becomes available for further sets of species, further testing will be warranted into the extent to which geographical variation in the richness of these six freshwater groups reflects broader patterns of biodiversity in fresh water.

Project description:Waterbirds have a major functional role in wetlands, and understanding how functional traits of waterbirds depend on environmental characteristics can facilitate management of ecosystems and their services. We investigate how the waterbird community in a Neotropical river-floodplain system responds to environmental gradients, identifying how they affect waterbird species richness, functional diversity (measured as functional dispersion) and functional composition (specific functional traits). We sampled 22 lakes in the Upper Paraná floodplain system in southern Brazil, and modelled avian functional diversity and species richness as a function of environmental variables. Then we used a unified RLQ and fourth-corner analysis to evaluate environment-trait relationships. Waterbird species richness and functional diversity varied according to different environmental variables. Lake area and diversity of aquatic vegetation were associated with avian species richness, while relative abundance of grass and emergent macrophytes and mean and variation of depth were related to functional diversity. Furthermore, changes in functional diversity seemed to be mainly driven by presence of species that depend on perches for foraging (e.g. kingfishers, cormorants, and kites), whose presence was mainly associated with deep water and emergent macrophytes. Nevertheless, changes in functional diversity and functional composition did not depend on exactly the same set of environmental variables, suggesting that trait combinations (e.g. below surface feeders who feed on fish), not only specific traits, are important drivers of the variation in functional diversity between lakes. Given the observed differences in responses of species richness and functional diversity, both these diversity metrics should be used as complementary tools in ecosystem management. Furthermore, our results show that functional diversity and composition are partially coupled, suggesting that although functional diversity is influenced by the environmental filtering of particular traits, it also reflects other ecological mechanisms (e.g. competitive interactions among species).

Dataset Information

Global functional diversity of freshwater fish is concentrated in the Neotropics while functional vulnerability is widespread.

Publications

Global functional diversity of freshwater fish is concentrated in the Neotropics while functional vulnerability is widespread.

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