The role of stochastic community assembly on the size structure of aquatic metacommunities under global change

• Grant number: 23/00574-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: February 28, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Agreement: NSF - Dimensions of Biodiversity and BIOTA
• Principal Investigator: Victor Satoru Saito
• Grantee: José Leonardo da Silva Mello
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/01452-1 - Understanding the role of stochasticity in metacommunity assembly under global changes, AP.R

Abstract

Body size is a master trait influencing species niche and trophic position, with larger rarer organisms commonly feeding upon abundant smaller ones. Therefore, the size structure of ecological communities (mass-abundance relationships, i.e. size spectra) depicts how energy flows through food webs. Tropical and temperate communities should have distinct size structures due to marked differences in temperature controlling metabolism and community assembly. This distinction in metabolism should entail differences in the relative influence of neutral community assembly between regions. Higher neutrality could be predicted for tropical communities due to high demographic stochasticity in smaller community due to fast biomass turnover of tropical species. This should impact food web structure because organisms would feed upon preys with body sizes outside their optimal range, resulting in deviations from theoretically expected size spectra. The postdoctoral researcher would test these and related ideas using data sampled in watersheds in tropical and temperate regions. The researcher would conduct field work with two other technicians in the tropical region, being also responsible for organisms identification and body size measurements. With the generated data, the researcher will conduct data analysis, describing size spectra and modelling how it changes with network position and region. The product of this postdoctoral will be at least one high impact scientific article. The researcher will also have the opportunity to help supervising undergraduate and graduate students and to join the proposed network of ecologists from the US and Brazil. (AU)

Scientific publications

(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)

VALENTE-NETO, FRANCISCO; MELLO, JOSE L. S.; PESTANA, GABRIELLE C.; SHIMABUKURO, ERIKA M.; DE SIQUEIRA, ALEXANDRE S.; COVICH, ALAN P.; SAITO, VICTOR S.. Ecological perspectives on the organization of biodiversity in Neotropical streams. Hydrobiologia, v. N/A, p. 23-pg., 2024-07-12. (23/00574-9, 21/13299-0, 22/01452-1)