Effects of lifestyle and size on initial dispersal and recruitment on amphipods (Crustacea: Gammaridea)

• Grant number: 15/10797-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): February 29, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Fosca Pedini Pereira Leite
• Grantee: Marília Bueno Fernandes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 16/23206-1 - How does habitat complexity affect amphipod dispersal? A test using seagrass and bryozoans, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Recruitment is the addition of new individuals to a population and it can contribute to the high variability at local populations structure in marine environments. To mobile epibenthic species, recruitment may be indicated by changes on behavior or habitat and habitat selection can be affected by life and feeding habits, as well as predation risk. Also, development mode may directly influence spatial distribution of marine invertebrates. Peracarid crustaceans dominate several intertidal macroalgae, show a wide array of lifestyles and their development is exclusively direct. Juveniles grow into the female marsupium and their initial dispersal and recruitment is poorly known. Two amphipod species with contrasting lifestyles and mobility and highly abundant at Sargassum beds from northern Sao Paulo shores were selected for this study. Cymadusa filosa is a tube-dwelling and sedentary species patchily distributed, reaching bigger size when compared to Hyale niger. This hyalid is a free-living species and thus, can search for different food and shelter sites, although being more vulnerable to visually oriented predators. Amphipods are an ecologically important group mainly by their abundance and the link between pelagic and benthonic environments through nutrients cycling. In this way, evaluate the dispersive potential and recruitment of these species will allow the understanding of intra and interspecific relations and undergoing processes at phytal community dynamics.

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)

BUENO, MARILIA; MACHADO, GLAUCO B. O.; LEITE, FOSCA P. P.. Colonization of novel algal habitats by juveniles of a marine tube-dwelling amphipod. PeerJ, v. 8, OCT 15 2020. (15/10797-9)

BUENO, MARILIA; PEREIRA LEITE, FOSCA PEDINI. Age and life style affect macroalgae colonization by amphipods in shallow marine environments. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, v. 514, p. 59-66, MAY-JUN 2019. (15/10797-9)