Modelagem de distribuição de espécies bênticas marinhas na costa do Brasil: bioinvasão, conservação e efeito das mudanças climáticas

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Florianópolis, 2015.A distribuição geográfica de muitas espécies é ainda insuficientemente conhecida (?The Wallacean shortfall?) o que pode limitar até mesmo os estudos mais básicos de Ecologia e Conservação e o manejo da biodiversidade. Esse problema é particularmente crítico para organismos bênticos, como os abordados nesse estudo, e para regiões megadiversas como o Brasil. Nesse contexto, a modelagem de distribuição de espécies é uma ferramenta versátil que permite responder diversas questões ecológicas. Os modelos de distribuição de espécies utilizam a relação entre dados de ocorrência das espécies e variáveis ambientais georreferenciados para estimar a área geográfica na qual uma espécie pode ocorrer. Neste trabalho foram utilizadas diferentes técnicas de modelagem de distribuição de espécies para responder questões de bioinvasão, Ecologia da Conservação e efeito das mudanças climáticas em bentos da costa do Brasil. No capítulo 1, foram modeladas as distribuições das espécies de coral Tubastraea coccinea (invasora) e Mussismilia hispida (endêmica) para identificar a área de potencial sobreposição entre as distribuições da espécie invasora e da espécie endêmica. Foi demonstrado que a espécie invasora pode vir a ocorrer em grande parte da costa do Brasil, incluindo a maioria das áreas marinhas protegidas. No capítulo 2, foi testada a hipótese de que o viés geográfico amostral (esforço amostral diferente ao longo da área de estudo) nos dados de ocorrência empregados em modelos de distribuição de espécies modifica o resultado da análise de priorização espacial para a conservação. Quando o viés geográfico não é corrigido, o portfólio de conservação gerado aponta áreas com maior esforço amostral como as mais importantes e áreas pouco amostradas como menos importantes para a conservação. No capítulo 3, foi testada a hipótese de que as mudanças climáticas podem promover mudanças nas distribuições de seis espécies de macroalgas na costa do Brasil com diferentes padrões biogeográficos: cosmopolitas (Ceramium brasiliense e Cryptonemia delicatula), tropicais (Dictyopteris jolyana e Gelidium coarctatum) e subtropicais (Levringea brasiliensis e Plocamium brasiliense). Os resultados indicam uma forte tendência de deslocamento nas distribuições das espécies em direção aos polos, independentemente da afinidade biogeográfica.Abstract : The geographical distribution of many species is still poorly known (The Wallacean shortfall) limiting even the most basic studies in Ecology and Conservation and the management of biodiversity. This issue is particularly critic for benthic organisms, such as the object of this study and megadiverse regions, such as Brazil, and. In this contexto, species distribution modeling is a useful tool allowing to answer several ecological questions. Species Distribution Models (SDMs) uses geo- referenced species occurrences linked with abiotic and/or biotic information from these localities to estimate the habitat suitability (i.e. areas of suitable conditions in which the species is likely to occur) in a geographical space. In this study we used distinct modeling techniques to answer questions of bioinvasion, Conservation Ecology and the effects of climate change in benthic species of the Brazillian coast. In chapter 1 we modeled the distribution of the coral species Tubastraea coccinea (invasive) and Mussismilia hispida (endemic) to identify potential overlap areas in the distribution of both species. We show the invasive species to have the potential to occurr in most of Brazillian coast, including most of Marine Protected areas, threatening the endemic reef builder species. In chapter 2 we tested the hypothesis of geographical sampling bias (sampling effort unevenly distributed in space) in occurrence data used in SDMs changes the results of spatial conservation prioritization analysis. When sampling bias is not accounted for, the generated conservation portfolios selects areas with higher sampling effort as the most important whereas the less sampled areas are pointed as less importante for conservation. In chapter 3, we tested the hypothesis that climate change can promote changes in geographical distribution of six marine macroalgae species in Brazillian coast with distinct biogeographical affinities: cosmopolitans (Ceramium brasiliense and Cryptonemia delicatula), tropical (Dictyopteris jolyana and Gelidium coarctatum) and subtropical (Levringea brasiliensis and Plocamium brasiliense). The results show a strong trend of poleward range shift in the species distributions regardless of their biogeographical affinity

The anti-predator role of within-nest emergence synchrony in sea turtle hatchlings

Group formation is a common behaviour among prey species. In egg-laying animals, despite the various factors that promote intra-clutch variation leading to asynchronous hatching and emergence from nests, synchronous hatching and emergence occurs in many taxa. This synchrony may be adaptive by reducing predation risk, but few data are available in any natural system, even for iconic examples of the anti-predator function of group formation. Here, we show for the first time that increased group size (number of hatchlings emerging together from a nest) reduces green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchling predation. This effect was only observed earlier in the night when predation pressure was greatest, indicated by the greatest predator abundance and a small proportion of predators preoccupied with consuming captured prey. Further analysis revealed that the effect of time of day was due to the number of hatchlings already killed in an evening; this, along with the apparent lack of other anti-predatory mechanisms for grouping, suggests that synchronous emergence from a nest appears to swamp predators, resulting in an attack abatement effect. Using a system with relatively pristine conditions for turtle hatchlings and their predators provides a more realistic environmental context within which intra-nest synchronous emergence has evolved

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Predicting distributional shifts of commercially important seaweed species in the Subantarctic tip of South America under future environmental changes

Shifts in species distributions are among the observed consequences of climate change, forcing species to follow suitable environmental conditions. Using species distribution models (SDMs), we aimed at predicting trends in habitat shifts of two seaweed species of commercial interest in the Subantarctic Patagonian region in response to ongoing environmental changes across temperate South America and worldwide. We gathered occurrence data from direct, on-site visual, and taxonomic identification (2009-2018) from global databases of species occurrence and from the scientific literature. We built the SDMs selecting putative predictors of biological relevance to Lessonia flavicans and Gigartina skottsbergii. We calibrated the SDMs using MaxEnt and GLMs for model evaluation, splitting our occurrence datasets into two parts: for model training and for model testing. The models were projected to future climate change scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathway: RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5) to examine trends in shifting habitat suitability for each species. Maximum sea surface temperature was the main predictor variable, followed by minimum nitrate concentration, explaining both species' distributional shift across Subantarctic shorelines by the year 2050. Projection of the SDM for each species under altered environmental conditions to 30-40 years into the future resulted in a south poleward shift with a reduction in habitat range for both species. Such responses would threaten their persistence, local marine species richness, biodiversity, ecological function, and thereby, the commercial and ecosystem services provided by L. flavicans and G. skottsbergii in Subantarctic South America.Chile's Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT/National Funding for Scientific and Technological Development) Progra

Ecological and biogeographic processes drive the proteome evolution of snake venom

Aim: The emergence of venom is an evolutionary innovation that favoured the diversification and survival of snakes. The composition of snake venoms is known in detail from venom gland proteomic data. However, there is still a gap of knowledge about the forces that lead to the expression of different toxins in different proportions in the venom cocktail across space and time. Location: World. Time period: Modern. Major taxa studied: Elapidae and Viperidae. Methods: We integrated proteomic data with phylogenetic comparative methods to understand how ecological and biogeographic processes drive the evolution of snake venom. Results: We observed that more productive environments favour a more complex venom, with more toxins in similar proportions. We found that taxa that live on islands, where there is lower variability of resources, tended to present less complex venom dominated by few toxins. In such cases, the extent of an island's isolation seems to be a relevant factor for faster fixation of specific venom compositions. Main conclusion: We show that ecological and biogeographic processes, which can act differentially over time and space, affect the gene expression of toxins in snake venoms.Fil: Siqueira Silva, Tuany. Universidade Federal de Sergipe; BrasilFil: Gonzaga de Lima, Luiz Antônio. Universidade Federal de Sergipe; BrasilFil: Chaves Silveira, Jônatas. Universidade Federal de Sergipe; BrasilFil: Ferreira Amado, Talita. Universidad Rey Juan Carlos; EspañaFil: Naipauer, Julian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Riul, Pablo. Universidade Estadual Da Paraiba.; BrasilFil: Martinez, Pablo Ariel. Universidade Federal de Sergipe; Brasi

The anti-predator role of within-nest emergence synchrony in sea turtle hatchlings

Group formation is a common behaviour among prey species. In egg-laying animals, despite the various factors that promote intra-clutch variation leading to asynchronous hatching and emergence from nests, synchronous hatching and emergence occurs in many taxa. This synchrony may be adaptive by reducing predation risk, but few data are available in any natural system, even for iconic examples of the anti-predator function of group formation. Here, we show for the first time that increased group size (number of hatchlings emerging together from a nest) reduces green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchling predation. This effect was only observed earlier in the night when predation pressure was greatest, indicated by the greatest predator abundance and a small proportion of predators preoccupied with consuming captured prey. Further analysis revealed that the effect of time of day was due to the number of hatchlings already killed in an evening; this, along with the apparent lack of other anti-predatory mechanisms for grouping, suggests that synchronous emergence from a nest appears to swamp predators, resulting in an attack abatement effect. Using a system with relatively pristine conditions for turtle hatchlings and their predators provides a more realistic environmental context within which intra-nest synchronous emergence has evolved.This article is published as Santos, Robson G., Hudson Tercio Pinheiro, Agnaldo Silva Martins, Pablo Riul, Soraya Christina Bruno, Fredric J. Janzen, and Christos C. Ioannou. "The anti-predator role of within-nest emergence synchrony in sea turtle hatchlings." Proc. R. Soc. B 283, no. 1834 (2016): 20160697.</p

Successful crowdfunding campaigns on Experiment.com by quarter from January 2013 to July 2015.

<p>(A) Total amount raised, (B) median amount raised, (C) median number of backers, and (D) number of funded projects.</p

Emergence data

Data used to perform the GLM analysis

Global controls on carbon storage in mangrove soils

Global-scale variation in mangrove ecosystem properties has been explained using a conceptual framework linking geomorphological processes to distinct coastal environmental settings (CES) for nearly 50 years. However, these assumptions have not been empirically tested at the global scale. Here, we show that CES account for global variability in mangrove soil C:N:P stoichiometry and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Using this ecogeomorphology framework, we developed a global model that captures variation in mangrove SOC stocks compatible with distinct CES. We show that mangrove SOC stocks have been underestimated by up to 50% (a difference of roughly 200 Mg ha−1) in carbonate settings and overestimated by up to 86% (around 400 Mg ha−1) in deltaic coastlines. Moreover, we provide information for 57 nations that currently lack SOC data, enabling these and other countries to develop or evaluate their blue carbon inventories