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In ecology, functional equivalence (or functional redundancy) is the ecological phenomenon that multiple species representing a variety of taxonomic groups can share similar, if not identical, roles in ecosystem functionality (e.g., nitrogen fixers, algae scrapers, scavengers). [1] This phenomenon can apply to both plant and animal taxa.
Functional redundancy refers to the phenomenon that species in the same ecosystem fill similar roles, which results in a sort of "insurance" in the ecosystem. Redundant species can easily do the job of a similar species from the same functional niche. [13] This is possible because similar species have adapted to fill the same niche overtime.
Debates over the validity of the IDH are ongoing within the discipline of tropical ecology as the theory is tested in various ecological communities. Other evidence exists for [15] [16] and against [17] [18] the hypothesis. The intermediate disturbance hypothesis has been supported by several studies involving marine habitats such as coral ...
This is largely due to cichlids having great biodiversity, wide distribution, the ability to occupy various ecological niches, and obvious morphological differences. [17] Ecomorphology is also often used to study the paleohabitat of a species and/or its evolutionary morphology.
Although not strictly necessary for a neutral theory, many stochastic models of biodiversity assume a fixed, finite community size (total number of individual organisms). ). There are unavoidable physical constraints on the total number of individuals that can be packed into a given space (although space per se isn't necessarily a resource, it is often a useful surrogate variable for a ...
The diversity of species and genes in ecological communities affects the functioning of these communities. These ecological effects of biodiversity in turn are affected by both climate change through enhanced greenhouse gases, aerosols and loss of land cover [citation needed], and biological diversity, causing a rapid loss of biodiversity and extinctions of species and local populations.
The redundancy is often generated for the purpose of resolving the time constraint of fast-activating pathways. It can be expressed in terms of the theory of extreme statistics to determine its laws and quantify how the shortest paths are selected. The main goal is to estimate these large numbers from physical principles and mathematical ...
An example of ecological diversity on a global scale would be the variation in ecosystems, such as deserts, forests, grasslands, wetlands and oceans. Ecological diversity is the largest scale of biodiversity, and within each ecosystem, there is a great deal of both species and genetic diversity. [1] [2] [3] [4]