| Grant number: | 13/50424-1 |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| Start date: | January 01, 2014 |
| End date: | March 31, 2018 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Ecology |
| Agreement: | AKA |
| Principal Investigator: | Tadeu de Siqueira Barros |
| Grantee: | Tadeu de Siqueira Barros |
| Principal researcher abroad: | Jani Markus Heino |
| Institution abroad: | University of Oulu , Finland |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil |
| City of the host institution: | Rio Claro |
Abstract
The study of variation in biotic communities - beta diversity - is highly important in our understanding of biotic homogenization. Despite increasing efforts, patterns in and processes underlying beta diversity are still poorly understood for many ecosystems. Understanding variation in biodiversity cannot be accomplished without regard to anthropogenic disturbance. While many studies have considered local anthropogenic changes affecting a set of communities, very few studies have directly examined how landscape alteration affects biodiversity in a set of communities at the landscape scale. For instance, many studies which have intended to study the effects of fragmentation, a landscape process, have instead assessed local factors associated to fragments. We will investigate effects of landscape disturbance on the beta diversity of stream macroinvertebrates and diatoms in both Brazil and Finland using large-surveys and modern statistical approaches. Such a tropical-boreal comparison is a novel research area in stream ecology, as very few studies have considered differences between tropical and boreal regions in the levels of beta diversity. The tropical-boreal comparison is important, as the former harbours seasonally stable ecosystems, while the latter comprises seasonally highly variable ecosystems; seasonality may lead to profound differences in the patterns of beta diversity. Our research should thus be of importance in developing both basic and applied ecology, with the studies helping to understand the structuring of ecological communities and homogenization of biological diversity in the face of anthropogenic changes. In addition to community-level phenomena, we will also examine which natural and anthropogenic factors affect the distributions of single species. The research is closely associated with the fields of expertise of the three principal investigators and the research teams. Dr. Jani Heino has expertise in the fields of community ecology, global change research and modelling community patterns of stream organisms. Dr. Janne Soininen has published broad studies of beta diversity and boreal stream diatoms, and has recently been involved in modelling distributions of aquatic species. The leader of the Brazilian part of the project, Dr. Tadeu Siqueira, is an expert on stream invertebrate ecology, including spatial ecology and environmental assessment of stream ecosystems. The research teams complement the expertise of the three principal investigators. (AU)
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