Functional ecology
[2] Functional ecology often emphasizes an integrative approach, using organism traits and activities to understand community dynamics and ecosystem processes, particularly in response to the rapid global changes occurring in Earth's environment.
[3] In his influential 1927 work, Animal Ecology, Charles Elton proposed classifying an ecosystem based on the how its members utilize resources.
[5] For, example, the loss of a single tertiary predator can have cascading effects on the food chain, resulting in reduction of plant biomass and genetic diversity.
[5] In general, the current consensus that diversity is beneficial to ecosystem health has much more theoretical and empirical support and is more widely applicable.
[7] At larger spatial scales, more environmental heterogeneity may increase opportunities for species to exploit more functional groups.
[5] Consistent with this conclusion, tests of theoretical models predict that the net effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions grow stronger over time, over larger spatial scales, and with more heterogeneous natural resources.
[5] However, these results are expected to underestimate the actual relationshipm impling that large space and time scales coupled with diverse resources are more than necessary to sustain an ecosystem.
While the concept of functional ecology is still in its infancy, it has been widely applied throughout biological studies to better understand organisms, environments, and their interactions.
[8] When holistically analyzing an environment, the systematic error of imperfect species detection can lead to incorrect trait-environment evolutionary conclusions as well as poor estimates of functional trait diversity and environmental role.
[8] Thankfully, correlations between environmental change and evolutionary adaptation are much larger than the effects of imperfect species detection.
[8] Nevertheless, approaching ecosystems with theoretical maps of functional relationships between species and groups can reduce the likelihood of improper detection and improve the robustness of any biological conclusions drawn.
Trait focused schemes of taxonomy have long been used to classify species, but the number and type of 'trait' to consider is widely debated.
[3] However, considering too few traits runs the risk of classifying species as functionally redundant, when they are in fact vital to the health of the ecosystem.
Understanding the functional niches that organisms occupy in an ecosystem can provide clues to genetic differences between members of a genus.
[11] Genomic ecology can classify traits on cellular and physiological levels leading to a more refined classification system.
Researchers were able to identify the correspondence between genetic variation and ecological niche function in the genus Agrobacterium and their greater biological implication on species distinction and diversity in the ecosystem.
[11] Thus, understanding the genetics of Agrobacterium fabrum allowed researchers to infer that it evolved into the niche (i.e. ecological role) of a plant so that it could avoid competing with its close relatives.
Function ecology can be applied to strategically assess the resurrection of extinct species to maximize its impact on an environment.
[12] However, many extinct marine species have been identified as functionally unique in their environments, even today, which makes a strong case for their reintroduction.
This can be a key transformative process in ecological preservation and restoration because functional extinction can have cascading effects on the health of an ecosystem.
