COMPARATIVE FUNCTIONAL-PLANT ECOLOGY - RATIONALE AND POTENTIALS

The long tradition and early training in plant taxonomy and evolutiona ry theory have led to the preconceived notion among plant ecologists t hat plant diversity represents the sum of distinct classes, rather tha n a continuum of variation. Thus, broad-scale comparisons across diffe rent taxa are viewed with scepticism. Yet, the unarticulated reluctanc e to compare the functional properties of phototrophic organisms acros s broad ranges of plant types is not well-grounded. Broad comparisons are likely to capture most of the functional variance that these organ isms display and lead to general conclusions, albeit sometimes impreci se for individual species. Ecological synthesis could be fostered ii s cientists working with the different plant types made efforts to incre ase connectance between them by highlighting similarities, instead of formulating independent theories to account for similar phenomena.