Hi, Duncan. I do regard secondary phytochemicals as functional traits. Do you know if phytochemicals can blend with each other or otherwise enhance each other's potency to create an emergent defense cocktail? Something that would deter consumers that would not be deterred by any of the individual components?
~ Aabir ----- Original Message ----- From: Duncan Thomas To: Aabir Banerji Cc: ECOLOG-L@listserv.umd.edu Sent: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 03:03:18 -0000 (UTC) Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] "Emergent" functions contributing to the functional diversity of a community? If you include plant secondary phytochemicals as functional traits, then the fitness of an individual can be increased by having neighbors that use different functional traits for their chemical defenses, reducing the local density of taxon-specific pathogens. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any publications that have looked at functional traits this way for natural systems or for inter-cropping. Duncan Thomas On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 2:53 AM, Aabir Banerji <lycanthropus...@comcast.net> wrote: Dear fellow ECOLOG users, The relationship between functional diversity and taxonomic diversity in ecological communities isn't always linear. I imagine the simplest case of non-linearity is where there is a lot of functional redundancy among phylogenetically diverse taxa. The opposite extreme (a depauperate community having a lot of functional diversity) is also possible... e.g., where generalist populations exhibit complex demographic structures or inducible polymorphisms. What I'd like to know, though, is if there is evidence of taxa fulfilling functions by associating with one another. It's one thing for a species to enter a new niche by relying on the product or ability of a different species (such as a beneficial symbiont). It's another for different species to combine complementary products or abilities to create/achieve something that no one species in the community is able to produce or achieve by itself (an "emergent" function). This latter phenomenon would be something akin to neighborhood habitat amelioration... or, perhaps, something more general that includes neighborhood habitat amelioration. Would any of you happen to know of recent reviews or articles that address this topic? Or some really good examples of it, perhaps? Thanks in advance! ~ Aabir Dr. Aabir Banerji Postdoctoral Associate Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies University of Zurich aabir.bane...@ieu.uzh.ch
