Functional diversity in nematode communities across terrestrial ecosystems

Managed grasslands exhibited the widest range of body-mass values while body-mass distribution in arable fields covered the greatest area in comparison to the other ecosystem types. The shift in body size revealed environmental filters that could not have been identified by the study of functional diversity indices per se. We found low values of functional evenness to be associated with high values of functional richness. We provide novel empirical evidence that body-mass distribution within a trophic group mirrors the effects of habitat filtering more than the distribution in the community as a whole. Hence, our trait-based approach, more than functional diversity itself, disclosed soil food-web structure and identified community responses.