Do headwater and environmental singular streams contain higher functional uniqueness of aquatic insects

• Grant number: 24/11271-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Danielle Katharine Petsch
• Grantee: Lívia Serezani Munhoz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems provide a range of ecosystem services and benefits crucial for humansurvival, yet they are highly affected by anthropogenic impacts. Lotic ecosystems haveindependent branches that connect at certain points, called dendritic networks. Within adendritic network, we find isolated streams (headwaters) and streams that receive inflow(central streams). We know that spatial scale can influence metacommunity patterns. In thisstudy, we aim to discover whether the position of a stream within a dendritic network(headwater or central) influences the values of environmental uniqueness (LCEH) andfunctional uniqueness (LCBD-f) of aquatic insects. Our hypotheses are that headwater streamshave higher values of LCEH (H1) and LCBD-f (H2) than central streams; we also believe thathigher values of LCEH are related to higher values of LCBD-f (H3). To conduct this study,we collected aquatic insect communities from 24 streams (12 headwaters and 12 central)located in protected areas of the Atlantic Forest. We will search in the literature for thefunctional traits of the insects and assess the functional uniqueness of each stream.Additionally, we collected information on the abiotic characteristics of each stream to assesstheir environmental uniqueness. We will calculate the LCBD-f and LCEH values. Next, wewill perform a paired t-test between LCEH and stream position (H1) and we will modelLCBD-f as a function of stream position (H2) and LCEH (H3). Assessing environmental andfunctional uniqueness can provide us with important information that contributes toconservation and restoration plans for freshwater ecosystems.