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Citation. Wright, J.P.; Naeem, S.; Hector, A.; Lehman, C.; Reich, P.B.; Schmid, B.; Tilman, D. 2006 Conventional functional classification schemes underestimate the relationship with ecosystem functioning. ECOLOGY LETTERS 9:111-120.
Abstract. Studies linking the functional diversity of a biota to ecosystem functioning typically
employ a priori classifications of species into hypothetically complementary groups.
However, multiple alternate classifications exist in which the number of functional
groups, the number of species per functional group, and the grouping of species differ
from the a priori scheme. Without assessing the relative precision, or ability of an a priori
scheme to accurately predict ecosystem functioning relative to its many alternatives, the
validity and utility of analyses based on a single a priori classification scheme remains
unclear. We examine the precision of a priori classifications used in 10 experimental
grassland systems in Europe and the United States that have found evidence for a
significant role of functional plant diversity in governing ecosystem function. The
predictive precision of the a priori classifications employed in these studies was seldom
significantly higher than the precision of random classifications. Post-hoc classification
schemes that performed well in predicting ecosystem function resembled each other
more with regard to species composition than average classifications, but there was still
considerable variability in the manner in which these classification schemes grouped
species. These results suggest that we need a more nuanced understanding of how the
diversity of functional traits of species in an assemblage affects ecosystem functioning.
Keywords: Biodiversity, classification, complementarity, ecosystem function, functional groups, sampling effect.