Let the concept of trait be functional

By C. Violle, M. Navas, D. Vile, E. Kazakou, Claire Fortunel, I. Hummel, Eric Garnier. 2007

4,570 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d6df2b4b4ad9626a1da071a131e9f6cfdf04fc73

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In Ecological Modeling

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

Citations in the corpus

Evidence for a ‘plant community economics spectrum’ driven by nutrient and water limitations in a Mediterranean rangeland of southern France (2012, background): “…soils had higher values of specific leaf area (SLAcwm) and greater amounts of leaf nitrogen per unit of mass (LNCcwm), two leaf traits commonly associated with rapid resource capture and high plant relative growth rate at the species level (e.g. Wright & Westoby 2001; Poorter & Garnier 2007).”
Functional groups in marine phytoplankton assemblages dominated by diatoms in fjords of southern Chile (2008, result): “this sense our approach fits well with the definition of trait suggested by Violle et al. (2007) ,”
Linking individual response to biotic interactions with community structure: a trait-based framework (2009, background): “…addition, aggregated traits at the community level (i.e. the average of species trait values weighted by their relative abundance in the community; Violle et al. 2007), can be used to predict how a particular community affects limiting abiotic resources (Lavorel & Garnier 2002; Violle et al.…”
Intraspecific functional variability: extent, structure and sources of variation (2010, background): “Plant functional traits – anymeasurable features at the individual level that directly or indirectly affect overall plant fitness (Lavorel et al. 1997; Violle et al. 2007) – are increasingly used, for instance, to establish functional classifications of organisms (Lavorel et al. 1997), to quantify…”
Convergent effects of elevation on functional leaf traits within and among species (2014, background): “While natural selection does not operate at the level of traits or even trait syndromes, functional trait approaches provide insight into selective processes occurring at the individual-fitness level that scale up to higher levels of organization (Violle et al. 2007).”
Root functional parameters predict fine root decomposability at the community level (2016, methodology): “We tested whether variations in fine root traits measured at the community level (i.e. the ‘functional parameters’ of plant communities after Violle et al. 2007) affect fine root decomposition measured in standard conditions (termed ‘litter decomposability’ hereafter).”