2 research outputs found
Functional redundancy and sensitivity of fish assemblages in European rivers, lakes and estuarine ecosystems
The impact of species loss on ecosystems functioning depends on the amount of trait similarity
between species, i.e. functional redundancy, but it is also influenced by the order in which species are
lost. Here we investigated redundancy and sensitivity patterns across fish assemblages in lakes, rivers
and estuaries. Several scenarios of species extinction were simulated to determine whether the loss of
vulnerable species (with high propensity of extinction when facing threats) causes a greater functional
alteration than random extinction. Our results indicate that the functional redundancy tended to
increase with species richness in lakes and rivers, but not in estuaries. We demonstrated that i) in the
three systems, some combinations of functional traits are supported by non-redundant species, ii) rare
species in rivers and estuaries support singular functions not shared by dominant species, iii) the loss of
vulnerable species can induce greater functional alteration in rivers than in lakes and estuaries. Overall,
the functional structure of fish assemblages in rivers is weakly buffered against species extinction
because vulnerable species support singular functions. More specifically, a hotspot of functional
sensitivity was highlighted in the Iberian Peninsula, which emphasizes the usefulness of quantitative
criteria to determine conservation prioritiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio