About this Research Topic

Background

In the modern world, anthropogenic actions have been changing the natural environment in unprecedented ways and critically compromising aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functions. In this context, trait-based ecology has been a topic of rising interest. Trait-based approaches are defined as any research method or application that focuses on individual properties of organisms (traits) rather than species identity. Functional diversity is a component of biodiversity and is defined as the functional trait differences between organisms present in a community or ecosystem. So far, functional diversity has been used as a practical approach in a multitude of multi-scale studies in nature and in laboratories. It has shown how to better predict community or ecosystem responses to anthropogenic change in comparison to just analyzing species-centered or taxonomic responses alone. Functional trait-based approaches have the potential to generalize responses across organisms, providing more informed links between biodiversity responses and environmental changes, and their consequences for ecosystem functions and service provision.

In recent decades, studies using functional traits have addressed issues at variable spatial and temporal scales. Among them, research questions related to the effects of environmental gradients on functional trait compositions, ecosystem feedbacks to species loss, the effects of dominant and invasive species on trophic dynamics, and the effects of land-use changes on species traits and their feedbacks to ecosystem functions are of increasing interest. Further, trait-based ecology has also been used as a proxy to unveil and predict biodiversity roles under the perspective of novel ecosystems.

Novel ecosystems are recognized as those where abiotic, biotic, social components and their interactions are under intensive human influence, which differs from those self-organized systems where human influence is little or absent. In the Anthropocene scenario, trait-based studies can be very helpful to better understand or to predict the characteristics of the emergent ecosystems, for example, those formed by river dams, undergoing shifting environmental conditions associated with any type of stress such as eutrophication, the persistence of invasive species and climate change. However, most of these studies were performed in terrestrial ecosystems, and more studies on freshwater and marine systems are needed.

The aim of this Research Topic is to enhance understanding and capacity to predict the effects of anthropogenic changes on ecosystem functioning by using functional trait-based approaches in research, monitoring, or management of aquatic ecosystems (freshwater and marine) as models, filling current research gaps. Contributions such as original studies, as well as perspectives and opinions are all welcome. Manuscripts focusing on, but not limited to, one or more of the following or related themes are particularly welcome:

● Functional trait responses to human activities and impacts and their consequences for ecosystem structure and functions.
● The effects of species functional trait loss and/or gain in impacted environments.
● The relationship between anthropic actions and functional homogenization of biodiversity.
● Functional responses of aquatic communities to biological invasions.
● Functional beta diversity changes as a result of changes along anthropogenic gradients.
● Utility of functional trait-based approaches in ecosystem condition assessment and monitoring of responses to change, and management or restoration.
● Application of functional trait-based approaches to predicting novel ecosystem structures and/or predicting ecosystem responses to future climate scenarios.

Keywords: ecosystem functioning, aquatic ecosystems, functional diversity, anthropogenic stressors and changes, functional trait-based ecology, ecosystem services, novel ecosystems, climate change

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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