Ecosystem Functions

Biodiversity has been devastated globally in the past hundred years, largely because of land conversion and agricultural intensification. Conversion of tropical forest to oil palm plantations is one of the greatest per unit area contributors to biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia. Concerned consumers, mainly from developed countries, have begun demanding sustainable palm oil in response to these issues. More 'biodiversity-friendly' oil palm production is also in demand, similar to that of other commodity crops (e.g. coffee, cacao). However, farming practices that improve biodiversity are thought to reduce yield, leading to increased pressure to clear more forest, resulting in further biodiversity loss. Here, we explore relationships between oil palm yield and avian biodiversity. To gather data on yields and agricultural inputs, we interviewed smallholders in Selangor, Peninsular Malaysia. We also quantified bird species richness, feeding guild diversity, abundance, and vegetation structure in smallholdings. We found that smallholdings with high yields were characterised by high species richness and feeding guild diversity, but low bird abundance. Our empirical results show the benefits to both yield and avian biodiversity of a wildlife-friendly strategy in smallholdings. We encourage the integration of farming practices with management that improves biodiversity to reconcile oil palm production and nature conservation.

Plant functional traits are the features (morphological, physiological, phenological) that represent ecological
strategies and determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels and influence ecosystem
properties. Variation in plant functional traits, and trait syndromes, has proven useful for tackling many important ecological
questions at a range of scales, giving rise to a demand for standardised ways to measure ecologically meaningful plant traits.
This line of research has been among the most fruitful avenues for understanding ecological and evolutionary patterns and
processes. It also has the potential both to build a predictive set of local, regional and global relationships between plants and
environment and to quantify a wide range of natural and human-driven processes, including changes in biodiversity, the
impacts of species invasions, alterations in biogeochemical processes and vegetation–atmosphere interactions. The
importance of these topics dictates the urgent need for more and better data, and increases the value of standardised
protocols for quantifying trait variation of different species, in particular for traits with power to predict plant- and ecosystem level processes, and for traits that can be measured relatively easily. Updated and expanded from the widely used previous
version, this handbook retains the focus on clearly presented, widely applicable, step-by-step recipes, with a minimum of text
on theory, and not only includes updated methods for the traits previously covered, but also introduces many new protocols
for further traits. This new handbook has a better balance between whole-plant traits, leaf traits, root and stem traits and
regenerative traits, and puts particular emphasis on traits important for predicting species’ effects on key ecosystem
properties.Wehope this new handbook becomes a standard companion in local and global efforts to learn about the responses and impacts of different plant species with respect to environmental changes in the present, past and future.

Traditional ecological research has focused on taxonomic units to better understand the role of organisms in marine ecosystems. This approach has significantly contributed to our understanding of how species interact with each other and with the physical environment and has led to relevant site-specific conservation strategies. However, this taxonomic-based approach can limit a mechanistic understanding of how environmental change affects marine megafauna, here defined as large fishes (e.g., shark, tuna, and billfishes), sea turtles, marine mammals, and seabirds. Alternatively, an approach based on traits, i.e., measurable behavioral, physiological, or morphological characteristics of organisms, can shed new light on the processes influencing structure and functions of biological communities. Here we review 33 traits that are measurable and comparable among marine megafauna. The variability of these traits within the organisms considered controls functions mainly related to nutrient storage and transport, trophic-dynamic regulations of populations, and community shaping. To estimate the contributions of marine megafauna to ecosystem functions and services, traits can be quantified categorically or over a continuous scale, but the latter is preferred to make comparisons across groups. We argue that the most relevant traits to comparatively study marine megafauna groups are body size, body mass, dietary preference, feeding strategy, metabolic rate, and dispersal capacity. These traits can be used in combination with information on population abundances to predict how changes in the environment can affect community structure, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem services.