Computing the Trait-Biogeography of Copepodid Diapause

One promising avenue toward understanding the complexity of ecosystems is to organize species, space, and time according to ecologically important traits. The so called trait-based approach to ecology has made significant contributions in terrestrial ecology, and is gaining momentum in marine ecology as well. An important component to the trait-based approach is mapping the biogeography of key traits. There are certain challenges that are particular to the marine plankton, such as the dynamic nature of the environment and non-standardized or sparse sampling. Models play a key role in linking the ecological principles underlying a trait to its biogeographic distribution. Here we review modeling studies of copepodid diapause–a key trait in defining structure and function of zooplankton communities–and demonstrate how localized studies can be extended to estimate global biogeographic patterns. We also discuss drawbacks to this approach and its utility in making future projections of trait distributions.