Invertebrates

Question 1

What are invertebrates?

Answer 1

Lack a vertebral column.
95% of metanzoan diversity
Multicellular and heterotrophic.
Z reproductive strategies.

Question 1

Why do we care about invertebrates?

Answer 1

1. Incredible diversity
2. Large biomass of invertebrates.
3. Many roles in ecological functions - food chains, nutrient cycling.
4. Need to conserve and easier to conserve.

Question 2

Major roles of invertebrates and ecological functions?

Answer 2

Food sourced from other organisms.
- Link nutrients from the environment to other species when eaten.

Affect survival, reproduction and population dynamics of other organisms.
- Plant
- Host
- Vectors of disease
- Invasive species interacting with native species.

Influence nutrient cycling

Ecosystem engineers and evolution drivers.

human applications
- food consumption
- medical applications
- biometric materials

Question 3

What is functional diversity?
[FD]

Answer 3

The extent of trait dissimilarity in a given community. Traits include morphological, physological, and ecological traits within the community.
Traits are associated with the organism, who it interacts with, and the impact of the organism on the community.
These traits include morphology, ecology, environmental tolerances, behaviors, and even phenology.
FD is a critical aspect of biodiversity: instead of wanting to know how many species there are, we want to know how much do their traits differ.
FD influences species coexistence, species dynamics, ecosystem processes, stability, productivity, and other integral aspects of ecosystem function
Various indices and formulas have been developed to estimate FD, so that communities can be compared.

Question 4

the importance of understanding FD?

Answer 4

compares organisms based on their ecological trait differences.

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. Best used with other complementary approaches.

Complementary approaches can include: 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?).

**functional redundancy. **

Question 5

is species diversity linked to functional diversity?

Answer 5

yes, the more FD the better the ecosystem is going to function.
But there are diffenct scenarios.

lecture 1 slide 22