El Niño is a climatic event that can have large-scale impacts on global rainfall patterns, causing severe droughts in some regions and floods in others. The frequency of strong El Niño events is expected to increase in the future under scenarios of climate change. Despite this, the consequences of El Niño-induced droughts for ecological interactions are poorly understood. Here I applied DNA barcoding to assess the diets of frugivorous and insectivorous bats in the dry forest and rainforest of Costa Rica during one of the strongest El Niño on record (2015) and compare it with a non-El Niño year. My data indicated that the mutualistic network structure observed during the El Niño event was similar in both dry forest and rainforest, despite these habitats experiencing droughts and flooding, respectively. However, during the non-El Niño wet season in the dry forest, niche overlap was higher than the El Niño event. Antagonistic networks showed little change in the overall size and diversity of modules of interaction, but there were significant changes in modularity and the position of the nodes between the networks constructed during the El Niño year versus the normal year in dry forest. Additionally, I evaluated the relationship between wing morphology and diet specialization and differentiation of individuals. I observed that individuals of a common insectivorous bat species, Pteronotus mesoamericanus, showed differences in diet that correlated with wing morphology. To conclude, El Niño was associated with similar changes in the organisation of mutualistic networks in both dry and wet forests, as well as with modifications at the node level in antagonistic networks of dry forest. Such changes could have profound impacts for network resilience and the maintenance of interactions and species at both sites over time.

Em escalas interanuais a advecção de calor, sal e nutrientes pode afetar a produtividade primária. Pode-se citar a Circulação de Revolvimento Meridional (MOC) no impacto da concentração de clorofila. Neste estudo, a partir do método Multidimensional Empirical Mode Decomposition foram obtidos tendências decadais de PAR, nitrato integrado na coluna d\'água, concentração de clorofila e fluxo de volume da MOC. Em variações de baixa frequência há uma relação entre o transporte de volume da MOC com o nitrato integrado na coluna d\'água no Atlântico Sul, e consequentemente, na concentração de clorofila. Dois possíveis cenários foram identificados sobre o efeito da MOC no nitrato integrado e na concentração de clorofila. O cenário 1 apresenta uma relação direta no sistema MOC-nitrato integrado-concentração de clorofila, enquanto o efeito do cenário 2 é indireto, com a MOC afetando outras variáveis que perturbam o sistema. Neste estudo também foi analisado a influência de teleconexões atmosféricas na MOC do Atlântico Sul. Foi achado indícios da influência da Oscilação Antártica na MOC do Atlântico Sul em escalas decadais. Conclui-se que variações de baixa frequência no fluxo de volume da MOC alteram o padrão espaço-temporal da concentração de clorofila no Atlântico Sul. / On interannual timescales the advection of heat, salt and nutrients can affect the primary production. The influence of the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) over the chlorophyll concentration can be mentioned. In this study, decadal trends of PAR, integrated nitrate over the water column, chlorophyll and volume flux of the MOC were obtained using the Multidimensional Empirical Mode Decomposition method. On low frequency variations there is a relationship between the MOC volume transport with integrated nitrate over the water column in the South Atlantic, and therefore, on chlorophyll concentration. Two scenarios were identified as possible mechanisms of influence of the MOC over integrated nitrate and chlorophyll concentrations. Scenario 1 presents a direct relationship on the system MOC-integrated nitrate-chlorophyll concentration, while scenario 2 has an indirect effect, with the MOC affecting other variables that disturb the system. In this study the influence of atmospheric teleconnections on the South Atlantic MOC were also investigated. It was found evidence that the Antarctic Oscillation can affect the South Atlantic MOC on decadal timescales. It was concluded that low frequency variability on the volume flux of the MOC can alter the spatiotemporal pattern of the chlorophyll concentration on the South Atlantic.

El Niño Southern Oscillation events have global implications both climatologically and socio-economically. One such climatological teleconnection is manifested in the Amundsen Sea region (ASR). The Amundsen sea low (ASL) is the dominant low pressure system located around the ASR and is important to the climate of Western Antarctica. Therefore, it is important to understand the ASL and any phenomena that may affect it. This thesis focuses on the ENSO--ASR teleconnection under El Niño conditions and the mechanism behind it. The ENSO--ASR teleconnection was explored using the UM version 8.4 (HadGEM3) model. Time--slice experiments with various magnitudes of idealised perpetual ENSO events are imposed. Two sets of `switch on' experiments in which tropical Pacific SSTs were ramped up were also carried out to investigate the transient nature of the teleconnection. The seasonality of the ENSO--ASR teleconnection is known from previous studies to be stronger in winter compared to summer. The mechanism behind the seasonality was explored using the time--slice experiments. The seasonality is found to originate from the seasonal differences in the Southern Hemispheric jets. As the subtropical jet is only present in austral winter, Rossby wave source anomalies can only be generated in the mid--latitudes in winter. Furthermore, the propagation of the Rossby waves is not possible in summer due to the strong polar front jet. The lack of the source and propagation in summer explains the weaker ENSO--ASR teleconnection. A flowchart summarising the mechanism was created and then verified by the transient runs. The linearity of the ENSO--ASR teleconnection within El Niño has not been previously investigated. This is mainly due to insufficient reanalysis data available to overcome the high internal variability in the ASR. In this thesis, the linearity of the teleconnection under El Niño is studied using the time--slice runs. The results indicate linearity (within errorbars) for both the summer and winter seasons up to historically maximum El Niños. However, under extreme El Niños (beyond historic records) in winter, the teleconnection is no longer linear. The UPSCALE dataset was used to investigate the effects of horizontal resolution on the simulation of the ASL climatological state and the ENSO--ASR teleconnection. The UPSCALE dataset consists of ensembles of HadGEM3 simulations at three different horizontal resolutions. The high resolution model was found to better simulate the ASL while the low resolution model was found to better simulate the ENSO--ASR teleconnection.