1 - Intro

Question 1

Why do we care about invertebrates?

Answer 1

1. Incredible diversity
2. Very large biomass
   Invertebrates = 93% of animal biomass
3. Many roles in major ecological functions
4. Need to conserve and much easier to conserve

Question 2

Major roles of invertebrates in ecological functions

Answer 2

1. Food sources (energy flow)
2. Affect survival, reproduction & pop dynamics
3. Influence nutrient cycling
4. Ecosystem engineering and evolution drivers
5. Human applications

Question 3

Species interaction examples

Answer 3

1. Plant - pollinator
2. Host - parasite
3. Vectors of disease
4. Invasive with native species

Question 4

Nutrient cycling

Answer 4

• Processing dead organisms
• soil formation
• nutrient enrichment

Question 5

Human application examples

Answer 5

1. Food consumption
2. Medical applications (biochemical compounds)
3. Biomimetic materials (spider silk, natural nanostructures)

Question 6

Biomimetic examples

Answer 6

• Back of Stenocara beetle, small sooth bumps - serve as collection points for condensed water in Arid desert.

Question 7

What is functional diversity?

Answer 7

The extent of trait dissimilarity in a given community (morphological, physiological & ecological traits)

Question 8

What are traits associated with? (3)

Answer 8

1. What the organism does
2. Who it interacts with
3. Impact of the organism on the community

Question 9

Traits can include..?

Answer 9

• morphology (body size)
• ecology (diet)
• environmental tolerances (niche size)
• behaviour
• phenology (timing of life stages)

Question 10

Instead of knowing how many species..

Answer 10

We want to know how much their traits differ

Question 11

FD influences

Answer 11

1. coexistence
2. dynamics
3. ecosystem process
4. stability
5. productivity

Question 12

Functional traits allows the scoring of species along a continuum of dissimilarity

Question 13

Why is FD not a universal solution to species diversity?

Answer 13

The outputs of the analysis can depend on
which traits are considered,
interactions among multiple traits,
what the goals of the analysis are (and whether the goals may change), and
the spatial and temporal scale used. Therefore, it is best used with other complementary approaches.

Question 14

Complementary approaches of FD

Answer 14

• phylogenetic & taxonomic diversity indices (e.g. how dissimilar are the species in a community in relation to phylogenetic affiliation: are they all closely related or very distantly related?)