On the development of a predictive functional trait approach for studying terrestrial arthropods. (14th May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brousseau, Pierre‐Marc; Gravel, Dominique; Handa, Ira Tanya
• Editors: Parr, Catherine
• Is Part Of: Journal of animal ecology. Volume 87:Number 5(2018:Sep.)
• Page Start: 1209
• Page End: 1220
• Publication Date: 2018-05-14
• Subjects: biotic interactions -- food webs -- functional ecology -- insects -- intraspecific trait variation -- spiders; Animal ecology -- Periodicals; 591.7
• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12834
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-8790

Abstract

Abstract: The characterization of ecological communities with functional traits allows to consider simultaneously the ability of a species to survive and reproduce in an environment, its interactions with other species and its effects on the ecosystem. Functional traits have been studied mainly by plant ecologists, but are increasingly common in the study of other taxa including arthropods. Arthropods represent a group for which a functional trait approach could be highly profitable because of their high diversity, abundance, ubiquity and role in many important ecological processes. This review synthesizes two decades of functional trait research on terrestrial arthropods. We show that while the approach has gained popularity, particularly in the last decade, the absence of clearly postulated hypotheses is a recurrent problem limiting generalization. Furthermore, studied traits are often poorly related to studied functions. To address these problems, we propose a step‐by‐step protocol to postulate clear hypotheses prior to trait selection and emphasize the need for a common set of more generalizable traits in future studies. Extending the functional trait approach to arthropods opens the door to improving our understanding of interspecific interactions and potential links between response and effect traits. We present the concept of trait‐matching with several examples of arthropod traits known to be effective predictors of consumer–resource interactions. The development of a successful functional trait approach for terrestrial arthropods will necessitate an understanding of relevant traits, standardized measurement protocols and open access databases to share this information. Such progress will provide ecologists with a new set of tools to answer broad questions in several fields including the study of community assembly, ecological networks and multitrophic functionality. Abstract : This study presents a review of the functional trait approach for arthropods. The authors argue that the strength of the approach relies on hypotheses relating traits to community assembly and ecosystem functioning. They also discuss the importance to study intraspecific trait variation and species interactions to improve the approach.