Climate change impacts on the dynamics of interaction networks and on the ecological patterns of microbial diversity in tropical aquatic ecosystems

• Grant number: 24/01611-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Valeria Maia Merzel
• Grantee: Juliana Aparecida dos Santos
• Host Institution: Centro Pluridisciplinar de Pesquisas Químicas, Biológicas e Agrícolas (CPQBA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Paulínia , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/08474-8 - Freshwater ecosystems under climate change: impacts across multiple levels of organisation, AP.PFPMCG.TEM

Abstract

The effects of climate change on the scale of microbial communities and involving different trophic levels have been poorly explored in the context of aquatic ecosystems. These limitations are mainly caused by the difficulty in (i) in situ experimentation in natural ecosystems, (ii) difficulties in obtaining data at a scale at which the effects of climate change could be observed (large geographic extent) and (iii) use of analytical and integrative methods in terms of processing genomic data on a Big Data scale and within the scope of microbiome studies. Based on this context, the general purpose of this project is to investigate the impact of changes in rainfall and temperature levels on the structure and dynamics of interaction networks of Bacteria, Archaea, Fungi and Protozoa communities and on taxonomic, functional alpha and beta diversity and phylogenetics in mesocosm systems. To achieve this objective, an ecological framework will be developed based on integrative and Bioinformatics analyzes using computational tools and analytical methods available in the literature. The results of this project will allow us to elucidate the responses of microorganisms at different trophic, functional and taxonomic levels to climate change in freshwater ecosystems from a multidisciplinary and integrative approach.