Functional Diversity

Functional diversity is a biodiversity component that considers the variation and distribution of organisms’ characteristics in an ecological community. As an organism’s characteristics influence the functioning of an ecosystem, functional diversity closely reflects the ecosystem functioning of a community. It helps us understand various ecological patterns as well as the processes of community assembly.

This article has two parts. In the first part, we introduce the concept of functional diversity, trace its conceptual history, and understand its relationship with taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity. In the second part, we appreciate its role in solving the community ecology “mess”, discuss the ways to measure various functional diversity indices, and explore the challenges in measurement and implications for conservation strategies. We believe this article will make functional diversity easier for students and researchers to understand, and inspire further study in this area.