Functional diversity in studies of aquatic macroinvertebrates community

We have compiled information from scientific articles from the ISI Web of Knowledge database (Thomson Reuters) to monitor trends and identify gaps in the use of functional diversity in studies of macroinvertebrates in stream ecosystems. We identified regions, periodicals, taxa and set of functional traits, which were more frequently used. The use of functional diversity with stream macroinvertebrates has proved to be recent, intended to answer the negative effects of land use on the community, especially of aquatic insects and mainly distributed in the European and North American continents. The meaning of terms used in the functional approach differ from concepts found in earlier studies, which may cause misunderstandings in interpretations and comparisons between articles. In addition to this issue, absence of species lists and functional values, and the combination of binary or continuous data and different taxonomic levels also hinder these comparisons. The standardization of terminology has been proposed previously and would simplify the use of functional traits, facilitating the understanding and the search for articles. We highlight the need for funding agencies to determine measures that force researchers to provide the databases after a certain period of time, thus contributing to the creation of a database in other continents, as has been occurring especially in Europe. Such initiative strengthens research, especially those distributed in areas undergoing intense human pressure.