{"id":4578,"date":"2023-11-08T09:43:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T09:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/?p=4578"},"modified":"2023-11-08T10:40:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T10:40:14","slug":"reply-functional-similarity-is-more-appropriate-than-functional-redundancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/2023\/11\/08\/reply-functional-similarity-is-more-appropriate-than-functional-redundancy\/","title":{"rendered":"New publication from Eisenhauer et al. in npj Biodiversity: Reply: Functional similarity is more appropriate than functional redundancy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Replying to<\/strong> Fel\u00edcia M. Fischer and Francesco de Bello <em>npj Biodiversity <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s44185-023-00029-z\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s44185-023-00029-z<\/a> (2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"justify\">In our Comment, we outlined that the term functional redundancy (1) may  have been overused from an ecological perspective and (2) can be  dangerous and misleading in scientific communication.  As a constructive way forward, we proposed to use the concept of  \u201cfunctional similarity\u201d with regard to specific ecosystem functions to  better highlight the unique contributions of all coexisting species to  ecosystem functioning (Fig. 1).  Moreover, we argued that functional similarity better describes  gradients in niche overlap while having a less negative connotation. We  were motivated to propose this change in terminology because of the  intense public discourse on biodiversity-related topics and the  potential of misinterpretation that may be caused by the mostly negative  connotation that is associated with redundancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"501\" height=\"522\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-222.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4579\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-222.png 501w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/image-222-288x300.png 288w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 501px) 100vw, 501px\" \/><figcaption> <strong>Fig. 1: Conceptual figure displaying hypothetical species A\u2013E in two-dimensional trait space.<\/strong> <br> Species that strongly overlap with respect to one trait, such as plant  size gradient (e.g., plant height or rooting depth), may be dissimilar  with respect to a second trait, such as root collaboration gradient<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s44185-023-00030-6#ref-CR14\">14<\/a><\/sup>.  In this simple example, only two traits are displayed for simplicity,  while ecological niches are highly multidimensional. Describing species  as functionally similar is more appropriate than describing them as  functionally redundant. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4>Reference<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Eisenhauer, N., J. Hines, and M. C. Rillig. 2023. Reply: Functional similarity is more appropriate than functional redundancy. npj Biodiversity 2:1\u20132. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s44185-023-00030-6\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s44185-023-00030-6<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Replying to Fel\u00edcia M. Fischer and Francesco de Bello npj Biodiversity https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s44185-023-00029-z (2023) In our Comment, we outlined that the term functional redundancy (1) may have been overused from an&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4578"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4591,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4578\/revisions\/4591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-jena-experiment.de\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}