The dimensionality of individual niche variation in coexisting species
| Grant number: | 16/09038-9 |
| Support type: | Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate |
| Effective date (Start): | November 21, 2016 |
| Effective date (End): | October 02, 2017 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Ecology |
| Principal Investigator: | Márcio Silva Araújo |
| Grantee: | Raul Costa Pereira |
| Supervisor abroad: | Volker Rudolf |
| Home Institution: | Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil |
| Local de pesquisa : | Rice University, United States |
| Associated to the scholarship: | 14/20924-5 - Revisiting the diversity paradox: does intraspecific ecological variation facilitate species coexistence?, BP.DR |
Abstract How similar species coexist in nature has intrigued ecologists by more then half-century. Recently, this field has received important theoretical contributions, outstandingly the idea that not only niche differences determine the output of species coexistence, but also the magnitude of average fitness dissimilarities. However, the modern coexistence framework still neglecting the intraspecific ecological diversity, an ubiquitous pattern in nature. Particularly, two different scales of intraspecific diversity have been recently recognized with large potential to impact on community ecology theory: ontogenetic and interindividual niche variations. In this proposal we aim to understand how intraspecific ecological variations (at ontogenetic and interindividual scales) can affect the coexistence of species and community assembly. Overall, we aim to investigate: i) which ontogenetic stage (larval or adults) account for most of the stabilizing effect needed for species coexistence; ii) how fitness hierarchy among competing species can affect the degree of intraspecific ecological variation, iii) considering internal and external filters, how communities are assembled at the individual scales. To address these questions, we will apply observational work on natural communities of frogs and tadpoles as well as mathematical modeling. We expect that our final results will advance community theories by explaining how intraspecific niche variations can impact on intra and interspecific competition and, consequently, in the coexistence of species and assembly of natural communities. | |