ArticleScience advances2021
Erosion of global functional diversity across the tree of life.
Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed.
- The link between colorfulness and extinction risk across the world's passerine birds.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Global Patterns and Drivers of Climatic Niche Originality and Overlap: Disentangling Ecological From Methodological Signals.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Diversification in small mammals is associated with climatic specialisation, whereas species accumulation reflects evolutionary time.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A functional-trophic pathway links riparian land use intensification to riverine community stability.Science advances · 2026Article
- Trait-Associated Gaps in IUCN Assessment and Conservation Prioritization for Echolocating Mammals.Integrative zoology · 2026Article
- We are not all the same: The role of intrapopulation trait variability in shaping functional strategy and performance of widespread species.Plant diversity · 2026Article
- Functional distinctiveness and rarity highlight climate vulnerability of mountain birds.Ecology · 2026Article
- Global functional shifts in trees driven by alien naturalization and native extinction.Nature plants · 2026Article
- Land-use changes threaten the safety net for birds.Nature · 2026Article
- Article
- A Hierarchical Niche Structure, Not Niche Partitioning, Organizes a Seasonally Dynamic Flea Community.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Extinction threatens to cause morphological and ecological homogenization in sharks.Science advances · 2025Article
- Quantifying the influence of intraspecific variability in trait spaces.npj biodiversity · 2025Review
- Environmental and evolutionary factors jointly shape life-history trait diversity of terrestrial vertebrates across China.Zoological research · 2025Article
- Global assessment of current extinction risks and future challenges for turtles and tortoises.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Threat reduction must be coupled with targeted recovery programmes to conserve global bird diversity.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Synergistic and Additive Effects of Multiple Threats Erode Phylogenetic and Life History Strategy Diversity in Testudines and Crocodilia.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Rare species do not disproportionately contribute to phylogenetic diversity in a subalpine plant community.American journal of botany · 2025Article
- The global spectrum of tree crown architecture.Nature communications · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although one-quarter of plant and vertebrate species are threatened with extinction, little is known about the potential effect of extinctions on the global diversity of ecological strategies. Using trait and phylogenetic information for more than 75,000 species of vascular plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and freshwater fish, we characterized the global functional spectra of each of these groups. Mapping extinction risk within these spectra showed that larger species with slower pace of life are universally threatened. Simulated extinction scenarios exposed extensive internal reorganizations in the global functional spectra, which were larger than expected by chance for all groups, and particularly severe for mammals and amphibians. Considering the disproportionate importance of the largest species for ecological processes, our results emphasize the importance of actions to prevent the extinction of the megabiota.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.