@article{CrawfordJeltschMayetal.2018,
  author    = {Crawford, Michael and Jeltsch, Florian and May, Felix and Grimm, Volker and Schl{\"a}gel, Ulrike E.},
  title     = {Intraspecific trait variation increases species diversity in a trait-based grassland model},
  series = {Oikos},
  volume    = {128},
  journal   = {Oikos},
  number    = {3},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {0030-1299},
  doi       = {10.1111/oik.05567},
  pages     = {441 -- 455},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Intraspecific trait variation (ITV) is thought to play a significant role in community assembly, but the magnitude and direction of its influence are not well understood. Although it may be critical to better explain population persistence, species interactions, and therefore biodiversity patterns, manipulating ITV in experiments is challenging. We therefore incorporated ITV into a trait- and individual-based model of grassland community assembly by adding variation to the plants' functional traits, which then drive life-history tradeoffs. Varying the amount of ITV in the simulation, we examine its influence on pairwise-coexistence and then on the species diversity in communities of different initial sizes. We find that ITV increases the ability of the weakest species to invade most, but that this effect does not scale to the community level, where the primary effect of ITV is to increase the persistence and abundance of the competitively-average species. Diversity of the initial community is also of critical importance in determining ITV's efficacy; above a threshold of interspecific diversity, ITV does not increase diversity further. For communities below this threshold, ITV mainly helps to increase diversity in those communities that would otherwise be low-diversity. These findings suggest that ITV actively maintains diversity by helping the species on the margins of persistence, but mostly in habitats of relatively low alpha and beta diversity.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WeithoffBeisner2019,
  author    = {Weithoff, Guntram and Beisner, Beatrix E.},
  title     = {Measures and Approaches in Trait-Based Phytoplankton Community Ecology},
  series = {Frontiers in Marine Science},
  volume    = {6},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Marine Science},
  publisher = {Frontiers Media},
  address   = {Lausanne},
  issn      = {2296-7745},
  doi       = {10.3389/fmars.2019.00040},
  pages     = {11},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Trait-based approaches to investigate (short- and long-term) phytoplankton dynamics and community assembly have become increasingly popular in freshwater and marine science. Although the nature of the pelagic habitat and the main phytoplankton taxa and ecology are relatively similar in both marine and freshwater systems, the lines of research have evolved, at least in part, separately. We compare and contrast the approaches adopted in marine and freshwater ecosystems with respect to phytoplankton functional traits. We note differences in study goals relating to functional trait use that assess community assembly and those that relate to ecosystem processes and biogeochemical cycling that affect the type of characteristics assigned as traits to phytoplankton taxa. Specific phytoplankton traits relevant for ecological function are examined in relation to herbivory, amplitude of environmental change and spatial and temporal scales of study. Major differences are identified, including the shorter time scale for regular environmental change in freshwater ecosystems compared to that in the open oceans as well as the type of sampling done by researchers based on site-accessibility. Overall, we encourage researchers to better motivate why they apply trait-based analyses to their studies and to make use of process-driven approaches, which are more common in marine studies. We further propose fully comparative trait studies conducted along the habitat gradient spanning freshwater to brackish to marine systems, or along geographic gradients. Such studies will benefit from the combined strength of both fields.},
  language  = {en}
}