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Reynolds Functional Groups: a trait-based pathway from patterns to predictions

  • COLIN S. REYNOLDS’ LEGACY
  • Review Paper
  • Published:
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To Colin Stanley Reynolds, in memoriam, for inspiring many generations of phytoplankton ecologists.

‘Thus, the circle has turned fully and the questions asked today are the same ones which engaged the pioneers of phytoplankton ecology: what lives where and why?’ C. S. Reynolds (1998).

Abstract

Reynolds Functional Groups (RFG) were designed to represent the diversity of phytoplankton assemblages of freshwater ecosystems and are among the most enduring legacies of C. S. Reynolds to freshwater phytoplankton ecologists. The RFG concept summarises a rich base of knowledge, clustering species according to functional criteria. RFG allow researchers to organise information, understand community and ecosystem functioning, and identify future outcomes, also contributing to construct hypotheses and define community assembly. This approach represents the environmental requirements, tolerances and sensitivities of species, organizing them into diagnostic environmental axes representing the habitat template of phytoplankton communities. In this contribution, we highlight the importance of this trait-based approach for phytoplankton ecology, and summarise its history and usage for phytoplankton species classifications and prediction based on environmental gradients. We present some of the applications of the approach, to describe patterns, explain mechanisms and predict new situations. We hope that this review will contribute both to describe the trajectory and practice of RFG and to encourage its use in addressing new ecological questions and in generating new avenues of research.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Judit Padisák, J. Alex Elliott, Martin T. Dokulil and Luigi Naselli-Flores for the organization of this Special Issue dedicated to Prof. Colin S. Reynolds and for their invitation. CK thanks the Sistema Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (SNI), Uruguay, for financial support. We are grateful to A. Segura and P. Pío for thoughtful discussions. MD was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas and the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica, Argentina (PICT 2016-0465). VLH was partially supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil (CNPq; Grant 304284/2017-3). We thank Janet Reid, from JWR Associates for English revision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales, Facultad de Ciencias y CURE, Universidad de la República, Ruta 9 y 15 SN, Rocha, Uruguay

    Carla Kruk

  2. Instituto Nacional de Limnología, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad Nacional del Litoral (INALI, CONICET-UNL), Ciudad Universitaria, Paraje El Pozo, CP. 3000, Santa Fe, Argentina

    Melina Devercelli

  3. Laboratorio de Ficologia, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, 20940-040, Brazil

    Vera L. Huszar

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  1. Carla Kruk
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Correspondence to Carla Kruk.

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Guest editors: Judit Padisák, J. Alex Elliott, Martin T. Dokulil & Luigi Naselli-Flores / New, old and evergreen frontiers in freshwater phytoplankton ecology: the legacy of Colin S. Reynolds

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Kruk, C., Devercelli, M. & Huszar, V.L. Reynolds Functional Groups: a trait-based pathway from patterns to predictions. Hydrobiologia 848, 113–129 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-020-04340-9

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