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Analyzing the Functional Type Concept in Arctic Plants Using a Dynamic Vegetation Model by Howard E. Epstein; F. Stuart Chapin III; Marilyn D. Walker; Anthony M. Starfield is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Analyzing the Functional Type Concept in Arctic Plants Using a Dynamic Vegetation Model about?

Grouping organisms into categories based on common traits has been a tool of ecological scientists for some time now. Defining groups of species, examples being life forms and functional types, is an operational procedure, conducted to answer a particular question. This becomes rather practical when performing analyses at coarse spatial scales, given data limitations and the potential for species redundancy. However, the implications of aggregating organisms for modeling purposes are still unclear. Does averaging the traits of several species into a functional type sufficiently represent the dynamics of the individual components? How much variability is lost when we aggregate species into groups? In an attempt to address these questions, we examined how the level of vegetation aggregation affected a variety of ecosystem properties using a regional‐scale model of arctic tundra ecosystems (ArcVeg). We used four levels of aggregation: species (15 dominant ones), functional types (7), life forms (4) and vegetation type (1), in addition to two methods of aggregation (simple vs weighted means of plant parameter values). We found that the level of aggregation consistently affected commun

Who reads Analyzing the Functional Type Concept in Arctic Plants Using a Dynamic Vegetation Model?

Author

Howard E. Epstein; F. Stuart Chapin III; Marilyn D. Walker; Anthony M. Starfield

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (Blackwell Publishing); Blackwell Publishing Inc.; Wiley; JSTOR (ISSN 0030-1299)

Published

2001

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)