The relationships between diversity and ecosystem functioning have become a major focus of science. A crucial issue is to estimate functional diversity, as it is intended to impact ecosystem dynamics and stability. However, depending on the ecosystem, it may be challenging or even impossible to directly measure ecological functions and thus functional diversity. Phylogenetic diversity was recen...

Molecular ecology and metagenomics applied to the study of microbial biodiversity are changing our comprehension of the biosphere. An impressive diversity of archaea, bacteria and, more recently, protists has been uncovered by molecular tools. Efforts to couple function to the phylogenetic diversity observed in natural environments are leading to the discovery of novel metabolisms and to a re-e...

Knowledge of the relationships between biotic components of rangeland ecosystem i.e. herbivores and plants is important for range managers. In order to study herbivorse grazing intensity on plant species diversity, an experiment was conductef using fuor grazing treatments in darrehshar rangelands, Ilam province in 2015. Plant species data were taken based on a randomized-systematic sampling met...

1. The goal of conservation and restoration activities is tomaintain biological diversity and the ecosystem services that this diversity provides. These activities traditionally focus on the measures of species diversity that include only information on the presence and abundance of species. Yet how diversity influences ecosystem function depends on the traits and niches filled by species. 2. B...