Unraveling the effects of global changes on multiple dimensions of ecological stability in aquatic ecosystems

• Grant number: 21/11950-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2022
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo Quevedo Romero
• Grantee: Felipe Rezende Fernandes de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/08474-8 - Freshwater ecosystems under climate change: impacts across multiple levels of organisation, AP.PFPMCG.TEM
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/14030-0 - The dimensionality of stability of freshwater ecosystems in a changing world: investigating the biodiversity-stability-ecosystem functioning relationships amidst climate and land use change experimental scenarios, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Ecosystems around the world have experienced changes in biodiversity promoted by climate change and different anthropogenic activities. Disturbances of different natures and magnitudes can differentially influence multiple ecological properties and different dimensions of ecological stability. Lentic ecosystems (e.g. lakes) are some of the most vulnerable ecosystems to major anthropogenic changes, with emphasis on the multifaceted impact of climate change and land use on the functioning of these ecosystems. However, there are few empirical studies evaluating how such ecosystems respond to the interactive effect of these multiple stressors, with the greater scarcity of information from tropical regions. In this study, we will investigate how different climate change and land-use scenarios influence different components of functional and compositional stability and the dimensionality of stability in aquatic ecosystems. Using artificial mesocosms to simulate small lagoons, we will set up a multifactorial experiment orthogonally manipulating climate change (via +4°C increases in average temperature and greater thermal instability, predicted for Brazil in 2100) and land-use change (via nitrogen and phosphorus enrichment by agricultural fertilizers and reduction of detritus input due to the riparian vegetation loss). We will assess the responses of diversity, trophic structure, and ecosystem functions to these anthropogenic stressors to measure the different stability metrics (e.g. variability, strength, resilience, turnover, etc.) and investigate the relationships among them. The experiment will last 140 days and the mesocosms will be assembled from collections in natural urban lakes.