Hi No (sorry Wayne I was not clear) my response was not to the 'Please describe function in ecosystems.question,' but about the 'but I have done an extensive literature search and have not found where this has been done before - perhaps because it is a bad idea for other reasons?' and 'Would it also be appropriate to use these values in a PAM or other clustering method to identify estuaries that are more/less similar in functional diversity?'
I am suggesting to make use of some stat software such as SAS or SYSTAT and do a multivariate cluster analysis on the variables (functional diversity variables on hand) for the statistical grouping of like estuaries. These variables may well include a subset of those mentioned by Juan; namely '(regulation [climate, nutrient cycling, pollination], habitat [refugia, nursery, etc.], information [scientific info, recreation, cultural and aesthetic] and production [food, genetic and medicinal resources, raw materials, etc.] functions)'. Best wishes, Ling Ling Huang Sacramento City College Thanks, Juan; I do appreciate the reference, but I am looking for a simper answer than that--a scientifically-based explanation of what ecosystem function means as an actual or theoretical feature of actual ecosystems. I am definitely not interested in ". . . an anthropocentric concept (as humans depend on ecosystems to survive) because is described as the capacity of the natural processes to provide an array of direct or indirect services or benefits to humans." I would be delighted to hear a discussion of benefits to humans some other time, however, but I do not want this discussion to wander off the central, very basic question now. WT ----- Original Message ----- From: Juan Alvez To: Wayne Tyson Cc: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2012 10:25 AM Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Visualizing functional diversity Hi Wayne, You can best visualize ecosystem functions in a paper written 10 years ago by De Groot and others, (Ref: de Groot, R.S., Wilson, M.A., Boumans, R.M.J., 2002. A typology for the classification, description and valuation of ecosystem functions, goods and services. Ecological Economics 41, 393-408.). It describes four main ecosystem functions (regulation [climate, nutrient cycling, polination], habitat [refugia, nursery, etc.], information [scientific info, recreation, cultural and aesthetic] and production [food, genetic and medicinal resources, raw materials, etc.] functions). It is certainly an anthropocentric concept (as humans depend on ecosystems to survive) because is described as the capacity of the natural processes to provide an array of direct or indirect services or benefits to humans. Best, Juan --- On Thu, 9/27/12, Wayne Tyson <[email protected]> wrote: From: Wayne Tyson <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Visualizing functional diversity To: "ling huang" <[email protected]>, [email protected] Date: Thursday, September 27, 2012, 5:34 PM Ling and Ecolog: No, I'm not. I'm looking for just what I asked. I would like your (or anybody's) explanation of what you mean by ecosystem function--in plain language. I presume that that would be very easy to do. I kept my question simple in the hopes of getting such an answer, but I would welcome an explanation of "functional diversity" too. WT ----- Original Message ----- From: "ling huang" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2012 1:15 PM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Visualizing functional diversity It sounds as though you are looking to do a cluster analysis for statistical grouping of like estuaries. This method is outlined in virtually all multivariate analysis books. PROC CLUSTER is the SAS procedure. Best Ling Ling Huang Sacramento City College --- On Wed, 9/26/12, Wayne Tyson <[email protected]> wrote: From: Wayne Tyson <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Visualizing functional diversity To: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2012, 7:11 PM Please describe function in ecosystems. WT ----- Original Message ----- From: "Katharine Miller" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 4:07 PM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Visualizing functional diversity Hello, I have used Rao's quadratic entropy to evaluate functional diversity between a number of estuaries for which I also have a GIS database. I would like to be able to visualize which sites are more functionally similar across the region to evaluate patterns in dispersal, etc. I know it is possible to use the pairwise functional beta diversity values as a distance matrix in a Mantel test or multivariate regression on distances matrices (MRM) when comparing functional diversity to, for example, environmental data. Would it also be appropriate to use these values in a PAM or other clustering method to identify estuaries that are more/less similar in functional diversity? This is likely to sound like a very naive question, but I have done an extensive literature search and have not found where this has been done before - perhaps because it is a bad idea for other reasons? Any insights and/or references on this approach would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
