Impact of aquatic allochthonous resources on niche breadth of terrestrial arthropods and composition of terrestrial community along the gradient sustained by these resources

• Grant number: 18/20843-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Theoretical Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo Quevedo Romero
• Grantee: Daniel Santos Franciscão
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

It is known that the flow of resources, especially the allochthonous, is an agent that modifies trophic dynamics and diversity in an ecosystem, influencing the food webs directly and indirectly. Adjacent ecosystem, such as riparian regions, are good examples to observe the changes in these dynamics across water-land interfaces. In this kind of region, insects of the complex life cycle, emerging from water bodies, subsidize populations of spiders and other terrestrial consumers, just as terrestrial organisms and detritus fall into water bodies and subsidize local life, shaping the breadth of niche and influencing the diversity of organisms along the gradient sustained by these resources. This proposal aims to investigate (I) the distance that the flow of emerging insects influences the niche breadth of the riparian spiders, and (II) quantify the changes in the composition of spider communities subsidized by these resources at different distances. To determine the niche breadth, we will use isotopic analyses of the spider's tissues; to quantify the changes in communities, we will calculate beta diversity across gradients and distances from water to land.