Broderick Rains
Pronouns: he/him
Research Mentor(s): Miriam Zelditch
Research Mentor School/College/Department: University of Michigan / LSA
Program:
Authors: Donald Swiderski, Broderick Rains, Miriam Zelditch
Session: Session 7: 4:40 pm – 5:30 pm
Poster: 74
Abstract
Currently, there are three recognized components of biodiversity: species-richness, phylogenetic diversity,
and functional diversity. While species richness and phylogenetic diversity are straightforward to
measure, functional diversity is not because of two major problems (1) the data may be inaccurate, and (2)
methods to quantify biodiversity may attempt the impossible. This study attempts to (1) evaluate data and
(2) conduct its own analysis of functional diversity. Since an analysis of all life is infeasible, this study
focuses on the genus Mus because its members are relatively ubiquitous and well-documented. The study
evaluates functional diversity data from four databases: panTHERIA, Elton Traits, Mammal Diet, and
COMBINE. Data is compiled and cleaned to facilitate comparison. A distance matrix is calculated from
each database using Gower’s method, and a Mantel test assesses the correlation between matrices.
Correlations were weak, with no Pearson correlation coefficient greater than 0.5. Next, the study
compared geographic distributions of functional diversity. Consistent with the correlations, geographic
distributions varied by database. These findings underscore pitfalls for future research on functional
diversity. Although functional diversity is a new and exciting metric of ecological stability and
productivity, further work is needed to responsibly compile and collect data and to construct a metric that
respects the multivariate complexity of functional diversity. Further work should document functional
diversity data outside of North America and Northern Europe and consider how distinct data types can be
aggregated.
