The relationship between the functional diversity, functional redundancy and community stability in mountain rangelands

Sadeghinia, Majid and Kargar, Mansoureh and Jafarian, Zeinab (2023) The relationship between the functional diversity, functional redundancy and community stability in mountain rangelands. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY, 24 (1). pp. 1-8. ISSN 1585-8553 (print); 1588-2756 (online)

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Abstract

Aims We studied species redundancy, functional redundancy, and community stability relationship in mountain rangelands of Northern Iran via assessing vegetation and soil resources. This study aimed to examine whether community redundancy contributes to community stability, quantify the importance of species redundancy versus functional redundancy to keep the stability of the community, and compare the relationship between these community and altitude gradient. Methods Ecological gradient determined by its environment, and disturbance factors were used to evaluate the variation in diversity, redundancy, and stability across a range of communities. We constructed a structural equation model (SEM) based on the bivariate relationships to understand the causal pathways through which the species diversity indices, functional diversity, redundancy diversity, and soil nutrients affect community stability. Results Positive and significant path coefficients were found for functional diversity and redundancy, species redundancy, and altitude gradient with stability. There was a significantly negative effect of functional diversity on species diversity. Species function had no effect on species redundancy. Conclusions Community stability improved at higher functional redundancy. In general, it can be concluded that the math- ematical representation of functional redundancy can be an effective tool to evaluate the causal models which link plant diversity to community stability.

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