Functional Diversity

A 2026 study by the Wildlife Institute of India examined spider communities across north-western Indian Himalayas.

• The study assessed functional diversity across forests, agricultural lands and human-dominated regions along 1,500-4,500 metres elevation.
• Functional diversity (FD) refers to the variety of ecological roles species perform in an ecosystem.
• It focuses on traits like feeding behaviour, activity patterns and dispersal, not just species numbers.
• Higher functional diversity increases ecosystem stability and resilience through role redundancy.
• Loss of functional redundancy reduces ecosystem’s ability to recover from disturbances.
• Researchers recorded 126 spider species across different land-use types in Himachal Pradesh.
• Functional diversity declined with ....