Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - A trait-based approach to advance coral reef science
AU - Madin, Josh
AU - Hoogenboom, Mia A.
AU - Connolly, Sean
AU - Darling, Emily
AU - Falster, Daniel
AU - Huang, Danwei
AU - Keith, Sal
AU - Mizerek, Toni
AU - Pandolfi, John
AU - Putnam, Holly
AU - Baird, Andrew
PY - 2016/6
Y1 - 2016/6
N2 - Coral reefs are biologically diverse and ecologically complex ecosystems constructed by stony corals. Despite decades of research, basic coral population biology and community ecology questions remain. Quantifying trait variation among species can help resolve these questions, but progress has been hampered by a paucity of trait data for the many, often rare, species and by a reliance on nonquantitative approaches. Therefore, we propose filling data gaps by prioritizing traits that are easy to measure, estimating key traits for species with missing data, and identifying ‘supertraits’ that capture a large amount of variation for a range of biological and ecological processes. Such an approach can accelerate our understanding of coral ecology and our ability to protect critically threatened global ecosystems.
AB - Coral reefs are biologically diverse and ecologically complex ecosystems constructed by stony corals. Despite decades of research, basic coral population biology and community ecology questions remain. Quantifying trait variation among species can help resolve these questions, but progress has been hampered by a paucity of trait data for the many, often rare, species and by a reliance on nonquantitative approaches. Therefore, we propose filling data gaps by prioritizing traits that are easy to measure, estimating key traits for species with missing data, and identifying ‘supertraits’ that capture a large amount of variation for a range of biological and ecological processes. Such an approach can accelerate our understanding of coral ecology and our ability to protect critically threatened global ecosystems.
U2 - 10.1016/J.TREE.2016.02.012
DO - 10.1016/J.TREE.2016.02.012
M3 - Journal article
VL - 31
SP - 419
EP - 428
JO - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
JF - Trends in Ecology and Evolution
SN - 0169-5347
IS - 6
ER -