Temporal variation in diversity of invertebrates associated with marine macroalgae: an approach in community genetics

• Grant number: 19/22401-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2019
• End date: January 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Fosca Pedini Pereira Leite
• Grantee: Ana Luísa de Faria Leitão Teixeira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Marine macrophytes have a great ecological importance in coastal ecosystems, since they constitute habitat to significant associated invertebrates, being susceptible of anthropic impacts. Inter-specific diversity (species diversity), intra-specific diversity (genetic diversity) and the correlation between both can provide important information to direct conservation efforts to a specific place or community. However, this kind of study to the habitat formed by macrophytes are still scarce, specially studies that consider a temporal variation in such parameters or studying populations that belong to distinct trophic levels. That study aims to: (I)Investigate how the correlations between genetic diversity and species diversity (SGDCs) in a community of invertebrates associated to macroalgae vary over time in an anthropized beach from paulista coast. (II)Investigate if there is difference in genetic diversity structure and in SGDC value between two species from distinct trophic levels - the herbivore Cymadusa filosa (Amphipoda: Ampithoidae) and the carnivore Costoanachis sertulariarum (Gastropoda: Columbellidae). The study will be realized in Mar Casado Beach, Guarujá-SP. Collects will be made over three consecutive summer. Aiming to reach the proposed goals, recent techniques of Next-Generation Sequencing will be applied in order to analyze the genetic diversity of both species over time, along with diversity parameters of Community diversity of invertebrates associated with algae. (AU)