An evolutionary approach to ecosystem functioning.

Editorial : Sustainable Development of Cognitive Science and Technology Ecosystem an Overview to the “Human Brain Project” as a Functioning Sample

Animal Habitat Quality and Ecosystem Functioning: Exploring Seasonal Patterns Using Ndvi

Many animal species have developed specific evolutionary adaptations to survive prolonged periods of low energy availability that characterize seasonal environments. The seasonal course of primary production, a major aspect of ecosystem functioning, should therefore be an important factor determining the habitat quality of such species. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing the relationship be...

The Evolutionary Legacy of Diversification Predicts Ecosystem Function.

Theory suggests that the structure of evolutionary history represented in a species community may affect its functioning, but phylogenetic diversity metrics do not allow for the identification of major differences in this structure. Here we propose a new metric, ELDERness (for Evolutionary Legacy of DivERsity) to estimate evolutionary branching patterns within communities by fitting a polynomia...

Common Property Resources as Village Ecosystem Service Center in Drylands of Rajasthan, India

There is an enormous stress on livelihood analysis of rural communities and their economies. Village common property resources (CPRs) have played a substantial economic role for the sustenance in rural areas of the drylands. The CPRs of drylands of western Rajasthan shows a varied range of habitats due to strong functional disparities in topographic, geomorphological, climatic, edaphic and phys...

Phylogenetic constraints on ecosystem functioning.

There is consensus that biodiversity losses will result in declining ecosystem functioning if species have different functional traits. Phylogenetic diversity has recently been suggested as a predictor of ecosystem functioning because it could approximate the functional complementarity among species. Here we describe an experiment that takes advantage of the rapid evolutionary response of bacte...

Bacterial Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Relations Are Modified by Environmental Complexity

BACKGROUND With the recognition that environmental change resulting from anthropogenic activities is causing a global decline in biodiversity, much attention has been devoted to understanding how changes in biodiversity may alter levels of ecosystem functioning. Although environmental complexity has long been recognised as a major driving force in evolutionary processes, it has only recently be...