| One of the main challenges in ecology is to understand how global changes affect biodiversity and what are the consequences on ecosystem functioning. In this perspective, the functional diversity of communities is a cornerstone since it allows linking environment, community structure and ecosystem properties. The aim of this thesis is thus to improve the understanding of functional diversity dynamic (i) in relation to natural variability of environmental conditions and (ii) under anthropogenic disturbances. As a first step we have developed a new methodological framework allowing to (1) describe fish functional niches based on functional traits, and (2) to quantify functional diversity within (α) and among (β) sites thanks to new indices.... |
