For this assignment, you will need to read McGill et al. 2006 and Messier et al. 2010. Considering the information presented in these papers, answer the following questions.

1. What do McGill et al. mean when they talk of “nomenclatural ecology” and what is their major criticism of this approach?

2. Based on your reading of McGill et al., what do you understand to be the major difference between the fundamental and realized niche, and how are these two related via functional traits?

3. At what scale do Messier et al. find most of the trait variation to be in their study of lowland tropical rainforest trees?

4. We will be performing some of the same analyses as Messier and colleagues did. Given the spatial scale and environmental gradients in our study, what might we expect to find, provided our results are consistent with Messier’s?

5. Review the Introduction section of Messier et al.. What is one question you have or topic you wish could be clarified after reading this section?