Effects of climate change on the structure of food webs in latitudinal gradients

• Grant number: 16/01209-9
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): January 15, 2017
• Effective date (End): January 14, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo Quevedo Romero
• Grantee: Gustavo Quevedo Romero
• Host: Pavel Kratina
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas, SP, Brazil
• Local de pesquisa : Queen Mary University of London, England

Abstract

Global biodiversity is declining at unprecedented rate mostly due to the stressors such as climate change and habitat alteration. Effects of such global changes on the structure, stability and functioning of natural complex networks (food webs) is poorly understood, especially in the tropics. A broad and audacious project, partially funded by FAPESP (# 2012/51143-3) under my coordination and managed by an international team, was recently completed successfully. This project investigated large congruencies and contingencies between climate change, community structure and ecosystem functioning through rainfall manipulation in natural microcosms (bromeliads) along a wide biogeographic gradient in Latin America (from Costa Rica to Argentina; 6 countries). My team in Brazil already achieved the goals and objectives of this project successfully, and plan to further analyze and reproduce complex networks of trophic interactions from this extensive database. In parallel, food webs of bromeliad-living fauna will be constructed from an extensive database collected in 12 open restingas along the Brazilian coast across a wide range of latitudes (-12.6 to -27.6, ca. 2000 km in a straight line) and climates (” average annual temperature = 5.3oC). Therefore, this project combines experimental and observational databases to investigate: (i) how the changes in rainfall regimes expected for the next few decades, and (ii) how natural climate variations across latitudinal gradients (bioclimatic components extracted from WordClim) alter the structure of complex ecological networks embedded within a biogeographical context. This project will be performed at the Queen Mary University of London (UK) where I will receive a strong logistical, theoretical and analytical support from the Drs. Pavel Kratina, Elizabeth Clare and Athen Ma.

Scientific publications

(8)

(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)

KERSCH-BECKER, MONICA F.; GRISOLIA, BRUNO B.; CAMPOS, MARIA J. O.; ROMERO, GUSTAVO Q. Community-wide responses to predation risk: effects of predator hunting mode on herbivores, pollinators, and parasitoids. ECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, v. 43, n. 6, p. 846-849, DEC 2018. Web of Science Citations: 0.

ROMERO, GUSTAVO Q.; GONCALVES-SOUZA, THIAGO; KRATINA, PAVEL; MARINO, NICHOLAS A. C.; PETRY, WILLIAM K.; SOBRAL-SOUZA, THADEU; ROSLIN, TOMAS. Global predation pressure redistribution under future climate change. NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE, v. 8, n. 12, p. 1087+, DEC 2018. Web of Science Citations: 1.

CEREGHINO, REGIS; PILLAR, VALERIO D.; SRIVASTAVA, DIANE S.; DE OMENA, PAULA M.; MACDONALD, A. ANDREW M.; BARBERIS, IGNACIO M.; CORBARA, BRUNO; GUZMAN, LAURA M.; LEROY, CELINE; OSPINA BAUTISTA, FABIOLA; ROMERO, GUSTAVO Q.; TRZCINSKI, M. KURTIS; KRATINA, PAVEL; DEBASTIANI, VANDERLEI J.; GONCALVES, ANA Z.; MARINO, NICHOLAS A. C.; FARJALLA, VINICIUS F.; RICHARDSON, BARBARA A.; RICHARDSON, MICHAEL J.; DEZERALD, OLIVIER; GILBERT, BENJAMIN; PETERMANN, JANA; TALAGA, STANISLAS; PICCOLI, GUSTAVO C. O.; JOCQUE, MERLIJN; MONTERO, GUILLERMO. Constraints on the functional trait space of aquatic invertebrates in bromeliads. FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, v. 32, n. 10, p. 2435-2447, OCT 2018. Web of Science Citations: 2.

KERSCH-BECKER, MONICA F.; GRISOLIA, BRUNO B.; CAMPOS, MARIA J. O.; ROMERO, GUSTAVO Q. The role of spider hunting mode on the strength of spider-plant mutualisms. Oecologia, v. 188, n. 1, p. 213-222, SEP 2018. Web of Science Citations: 2.

ANTIQUEIRA, PABLO AUGUSTO P.; PETCHEY, OWEN L.; DOS SANTOS, VIVIANE PICCIN; DE OLIVEIRA, VALERIA MAIA; ROMERO, GUSTAVO QUEVEDO. Environmental change and predator diversity drive alpha and beta diversity in freshwater macro and microorganisms. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, v. 24, n. 8, p. 3715-3728, AUG 2018. Web of Science Citations: 1.

MIGLIORINI, GUSTAVO H.; SRIVASTAVA, DIANE S.; ROMERO, GUSTAVO Q. Leaf litter traits drive community structure and functioning in a natural aquatic microcosm. Freshwater Biology, v. 63, n. 4, p. 341-352, APR 2018. Web of Science Citations: 0.

CRISTIANO MARINO, NICHOLAS DOS ANJOS; ROMERO, GUSTAVO QUEVEDO; FARJALLA, VINICIUS FORTES. Geographical and experimental contexts modulate the effect of warming on top-down control: a meta-analysis. ECOLOGY LETTERS, v. 21, n. 3, p. 455-466, MAR 2018. Web of Science Citations: 2.

ANTIQUEIRA, PABLO AUGUSTO P.; PETCHEY, OWEN L.; ROMERO, GUSTAVO QUEVEDO. Warming and top predator loss drive ecosystem multifunctionality. ECOLOGY LETTERS, v. 21, n. 1, p. 72-82, JAN 2018. Web of Science Citations: 9.