Functionele biodiversiteit (KB-36-001-020)

Functional Biodiversity

Nature policy (NL and EU) is focused on the conservation and restoration of endangered species and habitat types. Although this is very important, this approach has at least two limitations when it comes to the monitoring of biodiversity targets. In the first place, it is becoming increasingly clear that nature is more dynamic and unpredictable than often thought, and this especially true under the influence of climate change and changing land use. A second disadvantage of species-based targets is that, in their current form, they provide hardly any insight into the functioning of ecosystems. For the transition to a more nature-inclusive society there is however an increasing need for information about the functioning of ecosystems (ecosystem functions) and the useful services that ecosystems can provide to humans (ecosystem services).

For both bottlenecks, a more functional approach to biodiversity (based on the traits of species) can contribute to a better understanding of the underlying processes. Insight into how species respond to environmental change and how this affects functional diversity is a prerequisite for the development of indicators for ecosystem functions and for cost-efficient management strategies. In this project, the focus is on the second bottleneck, i.e. the lack of information about ecosystem functions. Vascular plants play an important role in many ecosystem functions, but species differ in the way in which they contribute to this, depending on their functional properties (traits). This project explores possible applications of the concept of 'functional biodiversity' for biodiversity monitoring, i.e. using a functional approach to biodiversity instead of a species-oriented approach. Central questions are: What is functional biodiversity, why is it important for the functioning of ecosystems, how can it be used in biodiversity monitoring and what is needed for this?