Disturbance, dispersal and diversity: Aquatic metacommunities in times of global changes
Event details
| Date | 12.11.2013 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Florian Altermatt, Spatial Dynamics group, Aquatic Ecology Dept., EAWAG |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
Understanding biological diversity is one of the most challenging and most active fields in ecology. Simple theoretical models predict that only few species should coexist. Contrarily, we commonly observe that natural communities are astonishingly diverse. Freshwater systems are among the most diverse habitats on Earth, but currently highly threatened due to water pollution, habitat modification, global warming or the spread of non-native species. Thus, understanding the drivers of diversity is urgently needed to eventually protect biotic diversity and ecosystem functioning.
Until recently, studies on diversity patterns have largely focused on local environmental conditions, and have ignored the specific spatial structure of the landscape. The spatial structure of many natural systems, however, is complex and often very distinct: ponds are patchy islands in a sea of land, while rivers and streams are arranged in a characteristic hierarchical structure.
In my group, we study how local environmental factors and dispersal among habitat patches interact and affect community composition and diversity. We use a combined comparative and experimental approach. First, I will show results from large datasets of natural metacommunities of aquatic insects and crustaceans from Finland and Switzerland. We find that species interactions and dispersal of invertebrates is affected by environmental disturbances and global warming in non-trivial ways. Importantly, dispersal along the habitat network structure is a likely driver of diversity, resulting in characteristic diversity patterns. Second, we use laboratory microcosm-experiments to causally understand the drivers of these diversity patterns. The experiments are designed in parallel of mathematical models. We find that dispersal-based models correctly predict diversity with respect to number of species, but that the species’ identity is often selected by local environmental factors. Taken together, our results explain how dispersal links local environmental processes with regional diversity patterns and community composition. Eventually, our findings can be applied to aquatic systems, either to protect endangered species, or to prevent the invasion of non-native species.
Dr Florian Altermatt, tenure track group leader of Spatial Dynamics at the Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (ETH-branch) in Dübendorf, Switzerland since 2011. His and his group's research questions focus at the intersection of ecology and evolution, and aim at understanding how species occur in space and time and how they interact, i.e. the effects of species invasions and dispersal on natural communities. Metapopulation and metacommunity theory provide a conceptual framework for the research activities using both experimental and comparative approaches, while closely collaborating with theoreticians.
Understanding biological diversity is one of the most challenging and most active fields in ecology. Simple theoretical models predict that only few species should coexist. Contrarily, we commonly observe that natural communities are astonishingly diverse. Freshwater systems are among the most diverse habitats on Earth, but currently highly threatened due to water pollution, habitat modification, global warming or the spread of non-native species. Thus, understanding the drivers of diversity is urgently needed to eventually protect biotic diversity and ecosystem functioning.
Until recently, studies on diversity patterns have largely focused on local environmental conditions, and have ignored the specific spatial structure of the landscape. The spatial structure of many natural systems, however, is complex and often very distinct: ponds are patchy islands in a sea of land, while rivers and streams are arranged in a characteristic hierarchical structure.
In my group, we study how local environmental factors and dispersal among habitat patches interact and affect community composition and diversity. We use a combined comparative and experimental approach. First, I will show results from large datasets of natural metacommunities of aquatic insects and crustaceans from Finland and Switzerland. We find that species interactions and dispersal of invertebrates is affected by environmental disturbances and global warming in non-trivial ways. Importantly, dispersal along the habitat network structure is a likely driver of diversity, resulting in characteristic diversity patterns. Second, we use laboratory microcosm-experiments to causally understand the drivers of these diversity patterns. The experiments are designed in parallel of mathematical models. We find that dispersal-based models correctly predict diversity with respect to number of species, but that the species’ identity is often selected by local environmental factors. Taken together, our results explain how dispersal links local environmental processes with regional diversity patterns and community composition. Eventually, our findings can be applied to aquatic systems, either to protect endangered species, or to prevent the invasion of non-native species.
Dr Florian Altermatt, tenure track group leader of Spatial Dynamics at the Department of Aquatic Ecology, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (ETH-branch) in Dübendorf, Switzerland since 2011. His and his group's research questions focus at the intersection of ecology and evolution, and aim at understanding how species occur in space and time and how they interact, i.e. the effects of species invasions and dispersal on natural communities. Metapopulation and metacommunity theory provide a conceptual framework for the research activities using both experimental and comparative approaches, while closely collaborating with theoreticians.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Andrea Rinaldo, ECHO