Advancing biological invasion hypothesis testing using functional diversity indices

D Renault (1, 2) , Manon C.M. Hess (3, 4, 5) , Julie Braschi (3, 6) , Ross N Cuthbert (7, 8) , Marta Gaia Sperandii (9) , Manuele Bazzichetto (1) , Olivier Chabrerie (10) , Gabrielle Thiébaut (1) , Elise Buisson (3) , Frédéric Grandjean (11) , Anne‐kristel Bittebière (12) , M.A. Mouchet (13) , François Massol (14)

1 ECOBIO - Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution [Rennes]
2 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France
3 IMBE - Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale
4 NGE-GUINTOLI
5 Tour du Valat, Research Institute for the conservation of Mediterranean Wetlands
6 Naturalia-Environnement
7 GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research [Kiel]
8 QUB - Queen's University [Belfast]
9 ROMA TRE - Università degli Studi Roma Tre = Roma Tre University
10 EDYSAN - Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés - UMR CNRS 7058
11 EBI - Ecologie et biologie des interactions
12 BAH - Équipe 1 - Biodiversité et Adaptation dans les Hydrosystèmes
13 CESCO - Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la COnservation
14 CIIL - Centre d’Infection et d’Immunité de Lille - INSERM U 1019 - UMR 9017 - UMR 8204

Pioneering investigations on the effects of introduced populations on community structure, ecosystem functioning and services have focused on the effects of invaders on taxonomic diversity. However, taxonomic-based diversity metrics overlook the heterogeneity of species roles within and among communities. As the homogenizing effects of biological invasions on community and ecosystem processes can be subtle, they may require the use of functional diversity indices to be properly evidenced. Starting from the listing of the main used functional diversity indices, alongside with the presentation of their strengths and limitations, we further focus on studies pertaining to the effects of invasive species on native communities and recipient ecosystems obtained using functional diversity indices. By doing so, we reveal that functional diversity of the recipient community may strongly vary at the onset of the invasion process, while it stabilizes at intermediate and high levels of invasion. As functional changes occurring during the lag phase of an invasion have been poorly investigated, we show that it is still unknown if there are consistent changes in functional diversity metrics that could indicate the end of the lag phase. Thus, we highly recommend to provide information on the invasion stage under consideration when computing functional diversity metrics. For the existing literature, it is also surprising that very few studies explored the functional difference between organisms from the recipient communities and invaders of the same trophic levels, or assessed the effects of non-native organism establishment into a non-analogue versus an analogue community. By providing valuable tools for obtaining in-depth diagnostics of community structure and functioning, functional diversity indices valuable tools for on-time implementation of restoration plans and improved conservation strategies. To conclude, our work provides a first synthetic guide for their use in hypothesis testing in invasion biology

Keywords: Functional traits; Invasiveness; Invasibility; Community-weighted trait mean; Diversity indices; Alien invasive species

Domains: Environmental Sciences; Environmental Sciences; Biodiversity and Ecology

D Renault, Manon C.M. Hess, Julie Braschi, Ross N Cuthbert, Marta Gaia Sperandii, et al.. Advancing biological invasion hypothesis testing using functional diversity indices. Science of the Total Environment, 2022, 834, pp.155102. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155102⟩. ⟨hal-03638923⟩