Does the inclusion of abundance in functional diversity increase its predictive power?: test in a cerrado community

• Grant number: 09/03461-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2010
• End date: February 28, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Marco Antônio Portugal Luttembarck Batalha
• Grantee: Raquel Carolina Miatto
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The structure and functioning of biological communities may be determined by biological diversity. However, traditional diversity measures have been considered crude estimations of community structure and functioning. So, functional diversity measures, that is, those that incorporate information on functional traits, have been intensely used nowadays. Nevertheless, one of the challenges in the field is incorporating species abundance into these measures, testing whether predictive power is increased in this case. The aim of this project is to include abundance in a functional diversity index that has been shown robust and to test whether its predictive power is increased. We will suggest three methods to include abundance, one of which will also include intraspecific variability. We will test their predictive powers in a woodland cerrado site. We will relate the functional diversity of woody species with litter decomposition rate, which is important in nutrient cycling regulation and may be more related to functional diversity than to species diversity. We expect that including abundance into functional diversity will allow us to predict more accurately the relationship among biodiversity, environment, and community functioning.