| Grant number: | 12/51143-3 |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Program on Global Climate Change - Regular Grants |
| Start date: | February 01, 2013 |
| End date: | July 31, 2015 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Ecology - Theoretical Ecology |
| Principal Investigator: | Gustavo Quevedo Romero |
| Grantee: | Gustavo Quevedo Romero |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil |
| City of the host institution: | Campinas |
Abstract
Global biodiversity is eroding because of stressors such as climate change and habitat alteration. Effects of such global change on the structure and functioning of entire food webs is poorly known. The aim of this project is to investigate how changes in rainfall patterns and atmospheric warming, predicted for the next decades, can affect tropical ecosystem functioning in a biogeographic approach. For this, we will use natural microcosms, i.e., phytotelmata from tank-bromeliads as suitable model systems, because they are replicable ecosystems and have fauna and micro-flora diversified, in addition to allow a complete census of different trophic levels and variable functional groups. Field and laboratory experiments will be done to manipulate temperature using heaters controlled by thermostats, as well as amount of rainwater entering the tank-bromeliads. We will test the effects of climatic changes on the (i) food web structure and composition (e.g., connectance) of bacterial, macro and micro-invertebrate communities from different sites, (ii) ecosystem functioning (e.g., detrital Processing, nutrient cycling and flux), and (iii) role of detrital and mineral leaching on the primary productivity and food web structure. Some of these experiments will be replicated over a large biogeographic gradient within Latin America (from Costa Rica to Argentina; 7 countries) in order to investigate broad congruence between climatic change and food web structure, and whether these relationships are context-dependent. (AU)
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