Impact of extreme events of rainfall on the physiological, functional and populational parameters of intertidal organisms

• Grant number: 11/23956-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Tânia Marcia Costa
• Grantee: Silas Candido Principe de Souza
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 12/17713-7 - Impact of extreme events of rainfall on the physiological, functional and populational parameters of intertidal organisms, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

The predict scenarios based on global climate change include some environmental variables which can present a direct impact on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In this context, extreme events are considered as one of the main stressors on the physiological and functional parameters of organisms that can influences on mass mortality. At coastal areas, the rainfall is an environmental factor that presents extreme variations frequently. In this study, we hypothesize that rainfall influences on sub lethal physiological stress in intertidal organisms, without mortality; while extreme events of rainfall can alter the functional responses and allocation of energy by invertebrates. In addition, it is expected that increasing the frequency of extreme events of rainfall it might result in higher mortality rates of population. These hypothesis will be evaluated using controled experiments, at laboratory conditions, on the effect of intensity (absence, median, extreme) and frequency (1, 2, 4 and 8 low tide periods) of rainfall on barnacles and mussels. Animals will be kept in aquarium under constant temperature and light cycle. The tide cycle will be manipulated and rainfall will be kept constant over the periods of low tide, using a freshwater disperser. The levels of glycose and lactate will be used as physiological variables to measure the sub lethal stress, while the filter-feeding rate during the high tides periods and the mortality rates will be used as the functional and population variables, respectively. The data will be evaluated using models of ANOVA.(AU)