Unraveling the drivers of community assembly: the interaction between predation and competition

• Grant number: 14/24532-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2015
• End date: February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Theoretical Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Alaide Aparecida Fonseca Gessner
• Grantee: Victor Satoru Saito
• Supervisor: Sandrine Pavoine
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/20540-0 - Process in metacommunities: ecological, evolutive and spatial factors structuring aquatic macroinvertebrates communities, BP.DR

Abstract

Environmental filtering, predation and competition are thought to be major influential processes that drive community assembly. Besides this importance, only competition and environmental filtering are considered in community assembly frameworks. Predation can increase, decrease, or have no effect on the competition strength of prey communities, and therefore, actual inferences about the importance of competition in community assembly could be misinterpreted. In this project we will propose a conceptual framework to investigate the interaction between predation and competition based on recent advances in community assembly theory and coexistence theory. Our framework will be based on patterns of co-occurrence of traits related to interspecific competition in a gradient of predation pressure. We will test our ideas with both simulated and empirical data on fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates. We expect that our final result will advance community assembly theory by explaining how predation can change competition-related trait patterns, and how ecologists can test the framework with compositional data, species trait data, and a gradient of predation. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SAITO, VICTOR S.; LAROCHE, FABIEN; SIQUEIRA, TADEU; PAVOINE, SANDRINE. Ecological versatility and the assembly of multiple competitors: cautionary notes for assembly inferences. ECOLOGY, v. 99, n. 5, p. 1173-1183, MAY 2018. (13/20540-0, 13/50424-1, 14/24532-4)

MARTINS, CLARISSA ARAUJO; SILVEIRA, MAURICIO; SAITO, VICTOR S.; COSTA-PEREIRA, RAUL; MOREIRA SUGAI, LARISSA SAYURI; PAYS, OLIVIER; ROQUE, FABIO DE OLIVEIRA. Phylogenetic structure of communities between temperate and tropical regions: Exploring patterns through literature datasets. ACTA OECOLOGICA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, v. 91, p. 30-34, AUG 2018. (15/25316-6, 14/24532-4, 13/20540-0, 16/14611-0, 14/20924-5)

SAITO, VICTOR S.; CIANCIARUSO, MARCUS VINICIUS; SIQUEIRA, TADEU; FONSECA-GESSNER, ALAIDE A.; PAVOINE, SANDRINE. Phylogenies and traits provide distinct insights about the historical and contemporary assembly of aquatic insect communities. ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, v. 6, n. 9, p. 2925-2937, MAY 2016. (14/24532-4, 13/20540-0, 13/50424-1)