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| Author(s): |
Inês Motta Comarella
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia |
| Defense date: | 2024-05-09 |
| Examining board members: |
Marcus Aloizio Martinez de Aguiar;
Flávia Maria Darcie Marquitti;
Carolina Reigada Montoya
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| Advisor: | Marcus Aloizio Martinez de Aguiar; Mathias Mistretta Pires |
| Abstract | |
Biodiversity is multidimensional and varies in space and time in response to several factors, such as competition for resources, the intensity of selection by the environment, and the degree of environmental heterogeneity. Large niche overlap leads to competitive exclusion, which reduces diversity, while small niche overlap leads to niche differentiation and coexistence, which increases diversity. Moreover, more stable environments facilitate greater species differentiation, whereas less stable environments lead to increased niche overlap. Environmental gradients enable coexistence on a large scale through the local adaptation of species. These three factors act in concert in nature, and theoretical models allow for the analysis of the isolated and combined effects of these factors over time. We developed an individual-based and spatially explicit eco-evolutionary model, building upon the framework proposed by Costa, Lemos-Costa, et al. (2019) and de Aguiar et al. (2009), incorporating a gradient of environmental selection and competition for resources. The model predicts macroscopic patterns including long-term species richness, species abundance distribution, as well as intra- and interspecific phenotypic variation. We explored how these long-term responses depend on ecological parameters: the intensity of environmental selection, the extent of niche overlap, and the degree of environmental heterogeneity. It was observed that in a heterogeneous environment, strong environmental selection restricts the spatial distribution of species, leading to intermediate species richness, limited by the spatial structuring of species. In a homogeneous environment, weak environmental selection combined with small niche overlap increases species richness and interspecific phenotypic differentiation at equilibrium while decreasing intra-specific phenotypic differentiation. This aligns with broad empirical patterns of high species richness associated with less selective environments, allowing greater niche differentiation, and low species overlap, which promotes niche differentiation (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 21/10318-4 - Influence of environmental gradient on speciation and spatial patterns of biodiversity |
| Grantee: | Inês Motta Comarella |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |