Neuroethology and ecomorphology seek to understand ecology and behaviour from the perspective of specialised adaptations of sensory systems, such as vision. Sharks display a large variety of visual specialisations reflecting the diversity of different ecological niches they occupy. Many shark species are long-lived and wide ranging and often select different habitats for reproduction, growth, and feeding. Habitat complexity, ambient lighting conditions and feeding strategies can therefore change throughout a shark’s lifetime or between populations. Few comprehensive investigations of visual function exist for sharks as studies typically focus on a narrow aspect of visual function or a particular life history stage. Consequently, there is limited data on within-species plasticity of visual function in response to acclimation to different visual environments or ontogenetic development. The aim of this thesis is to undertake a functional analysis of the shark visual system. An integrated approach is employed to investigate optical, anatomical and physiological specialisations, linking such specialisations to known habitat and/or behavioural traits, with particular emphasis on ontogenetic, inter-population and inter-specific variability. Fundamental capabilities of the visual system are examined, including optical quality, eye morphology, spectral range, irradiance sensitivity, spatial and temporal resolution, contrast discrimination, and temporal and spatial summation. The main study species is the sandbar shark (<i>Carcharhinis plumbeus</i>; Carcharhinidae), a cosmopolitan species of ecological and economic importance. <i>C. plumbeus</i> occupies a wide range of natural habitats from highly turbid coastal estuaries, to relatively clear waters off the outer continental shelves and near pristine clear waters over the slopes of oceanic islands. This provides an opportunity to explore the relationship between habitat variability and the adaptation of visual specialisations and subsequent behaviour. For inter-specific comparison, the visual systems of two other species of shark with contrasting ecological niches are also assessed: the shortspine spurdog (<i>Squalus mitsukurii</i>; Squalidae) and the tiger shark (<i>Galeocerdo cuvier</i>; Carcharhinidae). The study finds marked differences in visual specialisations of the three species studied. The eyes of <i>S. mitsukurii</i> are adapted to enhance retinal illumination within a dim light environment with a large eye, immobile pupil, reflective tapetum and a relatively high optical sensitivity (2.72 μm² steradians). Visual features include a short wavelength lenticular filter, a high spatial resolving power (7.2 cycles/degree) and a large binocular overlap in the dorsal visual field, suggesting adaptations may facilitate the visualisation of bioluminescent prey. In contrast, the eyes of <i>C. plumbeus</i> are optimised for vision under variable light conditions with a mobile pupil and an occlusible tapetum. The sandbar shark shows an optical sensitivity of 1.11 μm² steradians. Visual resolution is highest in the lateral visual field, reaching a peak spatial resolution of 8.9 cycles/degree. An ERG derived spectral response curve for this species indicates maximal response to blue light between 460-490 nm. Interestingly, the tiger shark is maximally sensitive to a brighter range of light intensities compared to sandbar sharks, implying that tiger sharks occupy a more photopic light environment. However, sandbar sharks have a visual system with higher temporal resolution, as evaluated by the ERG response, (54 Hz) than tiger sharks (38 Hz). These results may reflect a difference in the importance of motion perception between <i>C. plumbeus</i> and <i>G. cuvier</i>. Phenotypic variability in visual function is shown between different populations of <i>C. plumbeus</i> occupying habitats with different ambient light conditions. This study provides new evidence of plasticity of visual function in response to acclimation to different visual environments within the same species. Sandbar sharks show an adaptive plasticity in visual sensitivity and temporal resolution, which appears to enable both temporal and population-specific adaptations to local light environments. In addition, the eyes of <i>C. plumbeus</i> and <i>S. mitsukurii</i> continue to grow even in adulthood. Visual performance, with respect to spatial resolving power and optical sensitivity, improve with eye growth. For example, peak spatial resolution increases with eye growth from 4.3 to 8.9 cycles/degree in <i>C. plumbeus</i> and from 5.7 to 7.2 cycles/degree in <i>S. mitsukurii</i>. These studies suggest that the light environment strongly influences visual function in this ancient class of vertebrates. Anthropogenically induced changes in water clarity may, therefore, impact on visually-mediated behaviours such as prey detection, agonistic signals or vertical migration. Anatomical and physiological parameters obtained from these studies provide a platform from which to model visual behaviours such as 1). Prey detection capabilities, 2). The impacts of water clarity on the limits of visually-mediated behaviour, and 3). The visual strategies that would allow sharks to maximise visual function, such as spatial and temporal summation under low light conditions. In conclusion, neuroethological studies can be a useful means to enrich information obtained from life-history and tagging studies and, together, can inform us of the functional role of sharks in marine ecosystems.

<p>The work in this thesis deals with the ecology and evolution of adaptive individual variation. Ecologists have long used niche theory to describe the ecology of a species as a whole, treating conspecific individuals as ecological equivalent. During recent years, research about individual variation in diet and morphology has gained interest in adaptive radiations and ecological speciation. Such variation among individual niche use may have important conservation implications as well as ecological and evolutionary implications. However, up to date we know very little about the extension of this phenomenon in natural populations and the mechanisms behind it.</p><p>The results in this thesis show that the extension of individual diet specialization is widely spread throughout the animal kingdom. The variation in diet is mainly correlated to morphological variation but not always. Furthermore, this variation in diet and morphology among individuals could be both genetically determined and environmentally induced and it mainly comes from trade-offs in foraging efficiency between different prey types. </p><p>The results from a number of studies of perch also show that individual perch differ in morphology and diet depending on habitat, where littoral perch has a deeper body compared to pelagic perch. This difference in morphology corresponds to functional expectations and is related to foraging efficiency trade-offs between foraging in the littoral and pelagic zone of a lake. The variation in morphology in perch is mainly due to phenotypic plasticity but there are also small genetic differences between the littoral and pelagic perch. Two separate studies show that both predation and competition may be important mechanism for the variation in morphology and diet in perch.</p><p>In conclusion, the results in this thesis show that individual variation in diet and habitat choice is a common phenomenon with lots of ecological and evolutionary implications. However, there are many mechanisms involved in this phenomenon on which we are just about to start learning more about, and only further research in this area will give us the full insight.</p>

Although a common plant response to environmental gradients, leaf trait plasticity is often uncharted in agroforestry systems. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of a i) local-scale gradient (light, nutrients) induced by shade tree diversity and ii) large-scale gradient (climato-edaphic) induced by altitude on coffee plant response on multiple agroforestry research farms in Costa Rica. Results show large variability of coffee traits: leaf photosynthetic rates, specific leaf area (SLA) and number of fruiting nodes deviate along both gradients. Mean SLA increased with increasing shade tree diversity. However, with increasing altitude, full sun coffee photosynthesized at higher rates than shaded coffee. Concurrently, other coffee leaf physiological and morphological traits differentiated between full sun and shaded coffee with increasing altitude. Results suggest soil moisture and light availability dominate environmental correlates to intraspecific coffee trait plasticity, providing insight to sources of coffee performance variability in monoculture and agroforestry systems.

Although a common plant response to environmental gradients, leaf trait plasticity is often uncharted in agroforestry systems. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of a i) local-scale gradient (light, nutrients) induced by shade tree diversity and ii) large-scale gradient (climato-edaphic) induced by altitude on coffee plant response on multiple agroforestry research farms in Costa Rica. Results show large variability of coffee traits: leaf photosynthetic rates, specific leaf area (SLA) and number of fruiting nodes deviate along both gradients. Mean SLA increased with increasing shade tree diversity. However, with increasing altitude, full sun coffee photosynthesized at higher rates than shaded coffee. Concurrently, other coffee leaf physiological and morphological traits differentiated between full sun and shaded coffee with increasing altitude. Results suggest soil moisture and light availability dominate environmental correlates to intraspecific coffee trait plasticity, providing insight to sources of coffee performance variability in monoculture and agroforestry systems.

No description available.

Abordagens funcionais e filogenéticas têm sido amplamente utilizadas no estudo de ecologia de comunidades e têm propiciado um melhor entendimento de como atributos funcionais e sua evolução influenciam padrões ecológicos observados atualmente na natureza. A incorporação da variabilidade intraespecífica em estudos recentes de ecologia de comunidades vegetais tem demonstrado que, apesar de a variabilidade intraespecífica de um atributo ser normalmente menor do que sua variabilidade interespecífica, estudos que consideram a variabilidade intraespecífica inferem mecanismos de organização de comunidades com mais acurácia. Além disso, abordagens analíticas que incluem a variabilidade intraespecífica em estudos de comunidades possibilitam integrar as escalas de populações e comunidades em ecologia. Abordagens filogenéticas recentes permitem a avaliação da interação entre composição filogenética de bancos regionais de espécies e a estrutura filogenética local de comunidades, o que permite a inferência de processos históricos e ecológicos que estruturam comunidades atuais. O objetivo geral desta tese foi avaliar padrões e inferir processos de organização de comunidades de plantas lenhosas da escala local à regional. Para isso, utilizei abordagens baseadas em atributos funcionais para avaliar o nicho de indivíduos (capítulo 2) e das espécies (capítulo 2 e 3) e abordagens filogenéticas para avaliar como a evolução influencia a similaridade funcional entre as espécies (capítulo 3), a formação de bancos de espécies locais (capítulo 3) e regionais (capítulo 4) e a estruturação de comunidades locais (capítulo 4). No capítulo 2, avaliei qual a importância relativa da substituição (turnover) de espécies e da variabilidade intraespecífica nas respostas médias e de dispersão de área foliar específica no nível de comunidade a um gradiente de abertura de dossel em uma metacomunidade de árvores juvenis. Nesse capítulo, concluí que a variabilidade intraespecífica é fundamental para a organização de comunidades lenhosas em florestas e arbustais, pois a área foliar específica dentro da mesma espécie varia conforme o ambiente e o contexto local de espécies interatoras. Essa plasticidade permite o estabelecimento de espécies em uma porção maior do gradiente de abertura do dossel. No capítulo 3, avaliei se espécies ocorrentes tanto na floresta quanto no campo diferem de espécies restritas à floresta ou ao campo quanto a resposta de seus atributos a espécies coocorrentes e ao gradiente ambiental. Concluí que uma ação combinada entre área foliar específica, espessura foliar e densidade de folhagem ajuda a explicar a organização de comunidades de plantas lenhosas em ecótonos floresta-campo. A plasticidade nesses atributos permite a colonização do campo por espécies que também ocorrem na floresta. No capítulo 4, avaliei se há associação entre a estrutura filogenética local (agrupamento ou repulsão) de comunidades de árvores e a distribuição geográfica de grandes linhagens de angiospermas no Neotrópico e Afrotrópico. A conclusão foi que diferenças regionais de composição filogenética entre o Neotrópico e o Afrotrópico são provavelmente um resultado de taxas diferenciais de especiação e extinção que seguiram a separação de Gondwana e atualmente influenciam a estrutura filogenética local de comunidades de árvores de florestas pluviais nos dois reinos. / Functional and phylogenetic approaches have been widely used in community ecology studies and have provided a better understanding of how functional traits and their evolution influence ecological patterns that are currently observed in nature. The incorporation of intraspecific variability in recent plant community ecology studies have demonstrated that, despite intraspecific variability of a given trait extent be usually lower than its interspecific variability, studies that account for intraspecific variability more accurately infer mechanisms of community assembly. Moreover, analytical approaches that incorporate intraspecific variability in community ecology studies enable integrating population and community scales in ecology. Recent phylogenetic approaches permit evaluating the interaction between the phylogenetic composition of regional species pools and local phylogenetic structure of communities, which enables the inference of historical and ecological processes structuring current communities. The general aim of this dissertation was to evaluate and infer assembly processes of woody plant communities from local to regional scales. For this, I used trait-based approaches to assess the niche of individuals (chapter 2) and species (chapter 2 and 3) and community phylogenetics approaches to evaluate how evolution influences the trait similarity between species (chapter 3), the formation of local and regional species pools (chapter 3 and 4, respectively) and the structuring of local communities (chapter 4). In chapter 2, I evaluated what is the relative importance of species turnover and intraspecific variability to the variation in trait mean and spread responses of specific leaf area at the community level across a canopy openness gradient in a tree juvenile metacommunity. In this chapter, I conclude that intraspecific variability is essential to woody community assembly in forests and shrublands, since specific leaf area within the same species varies according to the environment and local context of interacting species. This plasticity permits species establishment in a wider portion of the canopy openness gradient. In chapter 3, I evaluated whether species both in forest and grassland differ from species restricted to either forest or grassland regarding their trait-based responses to co-occurring species and environmental gradient. I concluded that an interplay between specific leaf area, leaf thickness and foliage density help explaining the assembly of woody plant communities in forest-grassland ecotones. The plasticity in these traits enables the colonization of the grassland by species that also occur in the forest. In chapter 4, I evaluated whether there is association between local phylogenetic structure (clustering or overdispersion) of tree communities and geographical distribution of major angiosperm lineages in the Neotropics and Afrotropics. In this chapter, I concluded that regional differences in phylogenetic composition between the Neotropics and Afrotropics are likely an outcome of differential rates of speciation and extinction following the breakup of Gondwana and currently influence local phylogenetic structure of rainforest tree communities in both realms.

The thesis was focused on the microevolutionary mechanisms that contribute to morphological diversity in selected members of the sedge family (Cyperaceae). Natural hybridization, evidenced from both morphological characters and molecular markers, was revealed to be a potentially important source of diversification in the tropical spikerushes of Eleocharis subgenus Limnochloa. High levels of phenotypic plasticity of clonal growth but rare genetic (ecotypic) differentiation among contrasting morphotypes were found in the polymorphic species Carex nigra, which implied that taxonomic splitting of the species was unreasonable.

Submitted by Bruna Rodrigues (bruna92rodrigues@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-10-02T13:02:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLADGB.pdf: 1548410 bytes, checksum: ca54122f2b96c487bc173d22135e8a0f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (bco.producao.intelectual@gmail.com) on 2018-02-05T16:59:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLADGB.pdf: 1548410 bytes, checksum: ca54122f2b96c487bc173d22135e8a0f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (bco.producao.intelectual@gmail.com) on 2018-02-05T17:00:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLADGB.pdf: 1548410 bytes, checksum: ca54122f2b96c487bc173d22135e8a0f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-02-05T17:04:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLADGB.pdf: 1548410 bytes, checksum: ca54122f2b96c487bc173d22135e8a0f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-07-03 / Não recebi financiamento / Biological, physical and chemical characteristics of the soil are environmental filters that strongly influence the composition of the plant communities. The knowledge of the effect of soil conditions on the survival and growth of plant species is important for the recovery activities in degraded areas. These aspects of plant performance are directly related to the functional characteristics of species, so understanding the responses of the different resources to different soil conditions can help to choose species that are best suited to each area. We have carried out an experiment in nursery with the objective of evaluating the influence of different soil treatments on survival and functional characteristics; Leaf Area (LA), Specific Leaf Area (SLA), Leaf Dry Matter Content (LDMC), Root Mass Fraction (RMF), Specific Root Length (SRL) and Relative Height Increment (RHI) of eleven native forest species forming a seed mass gradient. The treatments used in the experiment were control soil - without the addition of any fertilizer (CT); addition of chemical fertilizer - NPK (QU); addition of organic fertilizer (OR) and the addition of chemical fertilizer and organic fertilizer (OQ). Soil chemical attributes in the four treatments were evaluated after two and seven months after planting to verify the changes that occurred over time. In addition, we evaluated soil chemical attributes of natural areas of occurrence of these species, preserved and degraded forests. The monitoring of the experiment was performed for four months and at the end of this period we recorded survival and measured the functional characteristics of all species. Chemical soil attributes used in the treatments CT and QU were more similar to the attributes of the areas used as reference, showing higher values of acidity potential (H + Al) and cation exchange capacity (CTC), and lower values of nitrogen (N) and organic matter. The seed mass heavily influenced survival in CT, QU and OR treatments and did not differed between CT and QU treatments and, furthermore, in OR treatment the survival was greater than in CT and QU treatments. The effect of seed mass on survival was not significant in OQ treatment. We detected a high positive correlation between SLA, RMF and SRL that were negatively correlated with LA and RHI. The functional properties of the species differed between treatments, but no differences were detected between treatments OR and OQ. In these two treatments, species reached higher values of LA and RHI and lower values of SRL, RMF and SLA than other treatments. Functional attributes varied between and within species. Phenotypic plasticity was higher in LA, RHI, SRL and RMF, and the variation of LA, RHI and SRL were highly correlated with each other and together were negatively related to seed mass. This study showed that limited terrestrial resources were able to modify root 12 architecture, leaf traits and the rate of growth of the aerial parts, which suggests that plants should invest more in fundraising bodies to increase the chances of survival. Intra-specific variation of LA, RHI, SRL, RHI and LDMC characteristics were correlated with each other and negatively correlated with seed mass. Smaller seed species were more plastic than larger seed species. In the treatment CT, these species reached higher values of SLA and SRL, while treatments with organic matter addition, these species reach higher values of LA and RHI. The addition of organic matter in the soil increased the survival and growth of plants, in particular small seed species. Thus, the addition of organic matter as pre-planting treatment proved to be more efficient to increase the performance of native tree species. However, experiments under field conditions are necessary to quantify the efficacy of manure on the reintroduction of native species into deforested forests. / As características biológicas, físicas e químicas do solo são filtros ambientais que influenciam fortemente a composição de comunidades vegetais. O conhecimento do efeito das condições do solo na sobrevivência e no crescimento de espécies vegetais é de grande importância para atividades de recuperação de áreas degradadas. Tais aspectos do desempenho de plantas estão diretamente relacionados aos traços funcionais das espécies, consequentemente a compreensão das respostas dos diferentes traços a diferentes condições edáficas pode auxiliar na escolha de espécies que se adaptem melhor a cada área. Nós conduzimos um experimento em viveiro com o objetivo de avaliar a influência de diferentes tratamentos de solo na sobrevivência e nos traços funcionais; Área Foliar (AF), Área foliar específica (AFE), Conteúdo de matéria seca foliar (CMSF) Fração da massa da raiz (FMR), Comprimentos especifico da raiz (CER) e Taxa de crescimento em altura (TCA) de onze espécies florestais nativas que formam um gradiente de massa de semente. Os tratamentos usados no experimento foram: solo controle – sem a adição de nenhum tipo de adubo ou fertilizante (CT); adição de fertilizante químico - NPK (QU); adição de adubo orgânico (OR) e adição fertilizante químico e de adubo orgânico (OQ). Os atributos químicos do solo nos quatro tratamentos foram avaliados após dois e sete meses da semeadura para verificar as mudanças ocorridas ao longo do tempo. Além disto, avaliamos os atributos químicos do solo de áreas naturais de ocorrência destas espécies, florestas preservadas e degradadas. O monitoramento do experimento foi conduzido por quatro meses e ao final deste período registramos a sobrevivência e as medidas dos traços funcionais de todas as espécies. Os atributos químicos dos solos usados nos tratamentos Controle e Químico foram mais semelhantes aos atributos das áreas usadas como referência, apresentando maiores valores de acidez potencial (H+Al) e Capacidade de troca catiônica (CTC), e menores valores de Nitrogênio (N) e de matéria orgânica. A massa da semente influenciou fortemente a sobrevivência nos tratamentos CT, QU e OR, e não diferiu entre os tratamentos CT e QU, por outro lado, no tratamento OR a sobrevivência foi maior em comparação com os tratamentos CT e QU. O efeito da massa da semente na sobrevivência não foi significativo no tratamento OQ. Detectamos uma alta correlação positiva entre os traços AFE, FMR e CER que foram negativamente correlacionados com AF e TCA. Os atributos funcionais das espécies diferiram entre os tratamentos, porém não foram detectadas diferenças entre os tratamentos OR e OQ. Nestes dois tratamentos as espécies alcançaram valores mais altos de AF e TCA e valores de 8 CER, FMR e AFE mais baixos do que nos demais tratamentos. Os atributos funcionais variaram entre e dentro de espécies. A plasticidade fenotípica foi maior com relação a AF, TCA, CER e FMR, sendo que a variação de AF, TCA e CER foram altamente correlacionadas entre si e juntas foram negativamente relacionadas com a massa da semente. Este estudo mostrou que a limitação de recursos do solo foi capaz de modificar a arquitetura das raízes, os traços foliares e a taxa de crescimento das partes aéreas, sugerindo que plantas devem investir mais em órgãos de captação de recursos para aumentar as chances de sobrevivência. A variação intraespecífica dos traços AF, TCA, AFE, CER e CMSF foram correlacionados entre si e negativamente correlacionados com a massa da semente. Espécies de sementes menores foram mais plásticas do que espécies de sementes maiores. No tratamento CT estas espécies alcançaram maiores valores de AFE e CER, enquanto que nos tratamentos que receberam adição de matéria orgânica, estas espécies alcançaram maiores valores de AF e TCR. A adição de matéria orgânica ao solo aumentou a sobrevivência e o crescimento das plantas, especialmente das espécies de sementes menores. Nesse sentido, a adição de matéria orgânica como tratamento pré-plantio mostrou ser mais eficiente para aumentar o desempenho de espécies arbóreas nativas. No entanto experimentos sob condições de campo são necessários para quantificar a eficácia do uso de esterco na reintrodução de espécies nativa em florestas desmatadas.

Abordagens funcionais e filogenéticas têm sido amplamente utilizadas no estudo de ecologia de comunidades e têm propiciado um melhor entendimento de como atributos funcionais e sua evolução influenciam padrões ecológicos observados atualmente na natureza. A incorporação da variabilidade intraespecífica em estudos recentes de ecologia de comunidades vegetais tem demonstrado que, apesar de a variabilidade intraespecífica de um atributo ser normalmente menor do que sua variabilidade interespecífica, estudos que consideram a variabilidade intraespecífica inferem mecanismos de organização de comunidades com mais acurácia. Além disso, abordagens analíticas que incluem a variabilidade intraespecífica em estudos de comunidades possibilitam integrar as escalas de populações e comunidades em ecologia. Abordagens filogenéticas recentes permitem a avaliação da interação entre composição filogenética de bancos regionais de espécies e a estrutura filogenética local de comunidades, o que permite a inferência de processos históricos e ecológicos que estruturam comunidades atuais. O objetivo geral desta tese foi avaliar padrões e inferir processos de organização de comunidades de plantas lenhosas da escala local à regional. Para isso, utilizei abordagens baseadas em atributos funcionais para avaliar o nicho de indivíduos (capítulo 2) e das espécies (capítulo 2 e 3) e abordagens filogenéticas para avaliar como a evolução influencia a similaridade funcional entre as espécies (capítulo 3), a formação de bancos de espécies locais (capítulo 3) e regionais (capítulo 4) e a estruturação de comunidades locais (capítulo 4). No capítulo 2, avaliei qual a importância relativa da substituição (turnover) de espécies e da variabilidade intraespecífica nas respostas médias e de dispersão de área foliar específica no nível de comunidade a um gradiente de abertura de dossel em uma metacomunidade de árvores juvenis. Nesse capítulo, concluí que a variabilidade intraespecífica é fundamental para a organização de comunidades lenhosas em florestas e arbustais, pois a área foliar específica dentro da mesma espécie varia conforme o ambiente e o contexto local de espécies interatoras. Essa plasticidade permite o estabelecimento de espécies em uma porção maior do gradiente de abertura do dossel. No capítulo 3, avaliei se espécies ocorrentes tanto na floresta quanto no campo diferem de espécies restritas à floresta ou ao campo quanto a resposta de seus atributos a espécies coocorrentes e ao gradiente ambiental. Concluí que uma ação combinada entre área foliar específica, espessura foliar e densidade de folhagem ajuda a explicar a organização de comunidades de plantas lenhosas em ecótonos floresta-campo. A plasticidade nesses atributos permite a colonização do campo por espécies que também ocorrem na floresta. No capítulo 4, avaliei se há associação entre a estrutura filogenética local (agrupamento ou repulsão) de comunidades de árvores e a distribuição geográfica de grandes linhagens de angiospermas no Neotrópico e Afrotrópico. A conclusão foi que diferenças regionais de composição filogenética entre o Neotrópico e o Afrotrópico são provavelmente um resultado de taxas diferenciais de especiação e extinção que seguiram a separação de Gondwana e atualmente influenciam a estrutura filogenética local de comunidades de árvores de florestas pluviais nos dois reinos. / Functional and phylogenetic approaches have been widely used in community ecology studies and have provided a better understanding of how functional traits and their evolution influence ecological patterns that are currently observed in nature. The incorporation of intraspecific variability in recent plant community ecology studies have demonstrated that, despite intraspecific variability of a given trait extent be usually lower than its interspecific variability, studies that account for intraspecific variability more accurately infer mechanisms of community assembly. Moreover, analytical approaches that incorporate intraspecific variability in community ecology studies enable integrating population and community scales in ecology. Recent phylogenetic approaches permit evaluating the interaction between the phylogenetic composition of regional species pools and local phylogenetic structure of communities, which enables the inference of historical and ecological processes structuring current communities. The general aim of this dissertation was to evaluate and infer assembly processes of woody plant communities from local to regional scales. For this, I used trait-based approaches to assess the niche of individuals (chapter 2) and species (chapter 2 and 3) and community phylogenetics approaches to evaluate how evolution influences the trait similarity between species (chapter 3), the formation of local and regional species pools (chapter 3 and 4, respectively) and the structuring of local communities (chapter 4). In chapter 2, I evaluated what is the relative importance of species turnover and intraspecific variability to the variation in trait mean and spread responses of specific leaf area at the community level across a canopy openness gradient in a tree juvenile metacommunity. In this chapter, I conclude that intraspecific variability is essential to woody community assembly in forests and shrublands, since specific leaf area within the same species varies according to the environment and local context of interacting species. This plasticity permits species establishment in a wider portion of the canopy openness gradient. In chapter 3, I evaluated whether species both in forest and grassland differ from species restricted to either forest or grassland regarding their trait-based responses to co-occurring species and environmental gradient. I concluded that an interplay between specific leaf area, leaf thickness and foliage density help explaining the assembly of woody plant communities in forest-grassland ecotones. The plasticity in these traits enables the colonization of the grassland by species that also occur in the forest. In chapter 4, I evaluated whether there is association between local phylogenetic structure (clustering or overdispersion) of tree communities and geographical distribution of major angiosperm lineages in the Neotropics and Afrotropics. In this chapter, I concluded that regional differences in phylogenetic composition between the Neotropics and Afrotropics are likely an outcome of differential rates of speciation and extinction following the breakup of Gondwana and currently influence local phylogenetic structure of rainforest tree communities in both realms.

Abordagens funcionais e filogenéticas têm sido amplamente utilizadas no estudo de ecologia de comunidades e têm propiciado um melhor entendimento de como atributos funcionais e sua evolução influenciam padrões ecológicos observados atualmente na natureza. A incorporação da variabilidade intraespecífica em estudos recentes de ecologia de comunidades vegetais tem demonstrado que, apesar de a variabilidade intraespecífica de um atributo ser normalmente menor do que sua variabilidade interespecífica, estudos que consideram a variabilidade intraespecífica inferem mecanismos de organização de comunidades com mais acurácia. Além disso, abordagens analíticas que incluem a variabilidade intraespecífica em estudos de comunidades possibilitam integrar as escalas de populações e comunidades em ecologia. Abordagens filogenéticas recentes permitem a avaliação da interação entre composição filogenética de bancos regionais de espécies e a estrutura filogenética local de comunidades, o que permite a inferência de processos históricos e ecológicos que estruturam comunidades atuais. O objetivo geral desta tese foi avaliar padrões e inferir processos de organização de comunidades de plantas lenhosas da escala local à regional. Para isso, utilizei abordagens baseadas em atributos funcionais para avaliar o nicho de indivíduos (capítulo 2) e das espécies (capítulo 2 e 3) e abordagens filogenéticas para avaliar como a evolução influencia a similaridade funcional entre as espécies (capítulo 3), a formação de bancos de espécies locais (capítulo 3) e regionais (capítulo 4) e a estruturação de comunidades locais (capítulo 4). No capítulo 2, avaliei qual a importância relativa da substituição (turnover) de espécies e da variabilidade intraespecífica nas respostas médias e de dispersão de área foliar específica no nível de comunidade a um gradiente de abertura de dossel em uma metacomunidade de árvores juvenis. Nesse capítulo, concluí que a variabilidade intraespecífica é fundamental para a organização de comunidades lenhosas em florestas e arbustais, pois a área foliar específica dentro da mesma espécie varia conforme o ambiente e o contexto local de espécies interatoras. Essa plasticidade permite o estabelecimento de espécies em uma porção maior do gradiente de abertura do dossel. No capítulo 3, avaliei se espécies ocorrentes tanto na floresta quanto no campo diferem de espécies restritas à floresta ou ao campo quanto a resposta de seus atributos a espécies coocorrentes e ao gradiente ambiental. Concluí que uma ação combinada entre área foliar específica, espessura foliar e densidade de folhagem ajuda a explicar a organização de comunidades de plantas lenhosas em ecótonos floresta-campo. A plasticidade nesses atributos permite a colonização do campo por espécies que também ocorrem na floresta. No capítulo 4, avaliei se há associação entre a estrutura filogenética local (agrupamento ou repulsão) de comunidades de árvores e a distribuição geográfica de grandes linhagens de angiospermas no Neotrópico e Afrotrópico. A conclusão foi que diferenças regionais de composição filogenética entre o Neotrópico e o Afrotrópico são provavelmente um resultado de taxas diferenciais de especiação e extinção que seguiram a separação de Gondwana e atualmente influenciam a estrutura filogenética local de comunidades de árvores de florestas pluviais nos dois reinos. / Functional and phylogenetic approaches have been widely used in community ecology studies and have provided a better understanding of how functional traits and their evolution influence ecological patterns that are currently observed in nature. The incorporation of intraspecific variability in recent plant community ecology studies have demonstrated that, despite intraspecific variability of a given trait extent be usually lower than its interspecific variability, studies that account for intraspecific variability more accurately infer mechanisms of community assembly. Moreover, analytical approaches that incorporate intraspecific variability in community ecology studies enable integrating population and community scales in ecology. Recent phylogenetic approaches permit evaluating the interaction between the phylogenetic composition of regional species pools and local phylogenetic structure of communities, which enables the inference of historical and ecological processes structuring current communities. The general aim of this dissertation was to evaluate and infer assembly processes of woody plant communities from local to regional scales. For this, I used trait-based approaches to assess the niche of individuals (chapter 2) and species (chapter 2 and 3) and community phylogenetics approaches to evaluate how evolution influences the trait similarity between species (chapter 3), the formation of local and regional species pools (chapter 3 and 4, respectively) and the structuring of local communities (chapter 4). In chapter 2, I evaluated what is the relative importance of species turnover and intraspecific variability to the variation in trait mean and spread responses of specific leaf area at the community level across a canopy openness gradient in a tree juvenile metacommunity. In this chapter, I conclude that intraspecific variability is essential to woody community assembly in forests and shrublands, since specific leaf area within the same species varies according to the environment and local context of interacting species. This plasticity permits species establishment in a wider portion of the canopy openness gradient. In chapter 3, I evaluated whether species both in forest and grassland differ from species restricted to either forest or grassland regarding their trait-based responses to co-occurring species and environmental gradient. I concluded that an interplay between specific leaf area, leaf thickness and foliage density help explaining the assembly of woody plant communities in forest-grassland ecotones. The plasticity in these traits enables the colonization of the grassland by species that also occur in the forest. In chapter 4, I evaluated whether there is association between local phylogenetic structure (clustering or overdispersion) of tree communities and geographical distribution of major angiosperm lineages in the Neotropics and Afrotropics. In this chapter, I concluded that regional differences in phylogenetic composition between the Neotropics and Afrotropics are likely an outcome of differential rates of speciation and extinction following the breakup of Gondwana and currently influence local phylogenetic structure of rainforest tree communities in both realms.