Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2016-05-09T19:20:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LucasViegasFrancisco_DISSERT.pdf: 12755776 bytes, checksum: 6f4076fc7e5da064d04f53f1846a093a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-05-09T22:36:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 LucasViegasFrancisco_DISSERT.pdf: 12755776 bytes, checksum: 6f4076fc7e5da064d04f53f1846a093a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-09T22:36:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LucasViegasFrancisco_DISSERT.pdf: 12755776 bytes, checksum: 6f4076fc7e5da064d04f53f1846a093a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-04 / At? o momento n?o h? um estudo que objetivou sintetizar a magnitude e varia??o do papel dos invertebrados aqu?ticos sobre a decomposi??o do detrito foliar em ambientes aqu?ticos. Al?m disso, existe uma falta de conhecimento sobre qual ? o impacto geral desses pequenos organismos na decomposi??o foliar. Al?m do mais, existe um quantidade de controv?rsias sobre como e quais devem ser os fatores mais influentes nesse processo ecol?gico. O objetivo deste estudo foi atrav?s de uma abordagem meta-anal?tica, entender como estes organismos afetam a decomposi??o foliar em ecossistemas aqu?ticos, e como este efeito varia de acordo com aspectos ecol?gicos e metodol?gicos. Foram inclu?dos estudos que avaliaram as taxas de decaimento exponencial na presen?a e aus?ncia de invertebrados, sendo abordadas apenas as vari?veis presentes em mais de 90% dos estudos do banco de dados. Como esperado, a presen?a dos invertebrados acelera a decomposi??o foliar e sua magnitude do efeito em escala global ? consistente. Este efeito n?o difere em rela??o ao tipo de ecossistema (l?tico ou l?ntico), temperatura ou latitude. Portanto, esta an?lise contradiz o argumento que invertebrados tem um maior papel na decomposi??o em ecossistemas de altas latitudes enquanto microrganismos deveriam ser mais importantes mais pr?ximo aos tr?picos. N?o observou-se nenhum vi?s ou quanto aos m?todos de exclus?o dos invertebrados ou ainda quanto a diferen?a entre as malhas. Apesar de ser dif?cil afirmar que n?o existem efeitos aditivos da exclus?o experimental ou ainda a diferen?a entre as malhas. Provavelmente outros par?metros n?o foram inclu?dos nesta an?lise poderiam explicar o efeito dos invertebrados na decomposi??o foliar, entretanto um insuficiente n?mero de par?metros dispon?veis dificultam mais avalia??es. Esta s?ntese conclui que o papel acelerador dos invertebrados detrit?voros deveria ser inclu?da em modelos biogeoqu?micos. Mais especificamente, estes modelos deveriam incorporar par?metros como a origem do detrito e a dura??o experimental. / There is no study aimed to synthesize the magnitude and variation of aquatic invertebrates for the decomposition of leaf litter in aquatic ecosystems. Furthermore, there is also a lack of knowledge about what is the overall impact of these small organisms on leaf decomposition. Moreover, there are a number of controversies that are the most influential factors on one of the most important processes of aquatic ecology. For example, the influence of latitude and temperature or yet the methodology employed for measuring the effect of the aquatic detritivorous invertebrates. Therefore the aim of our study was, through a meta-analytic review, understand how these organisms affect the decomposition of foliar detritus in aquatic ecosystems, and how this effect varies according to the methodological and environmental parameters most used. Through the evaluation of decomposition rates (k) in the presence and absence of these invertebrates 104 independent studies satisfied our selection criteria and were included in the database. To intention present representativeness of the sample, each used parameter in this analysis need to be present in over 90% of the selected studies. No publication bias was detected, although we verified a significant decrease in the invertebrate decomposition effect in longer experimental duration, indicating that short experiments reveal higher detritivoria while longer experiments manifest lower mass loss. As expected, these results cast reveal that in general the presence of invertebrates accelerates the decomposition process. Furthermore the global effect size, these effect are consistent and do not differ in relation to aquatic ecosystem types (lotic, lentic or marine), temperature or latitude of the experiments, even presenting a slight increase importance of invertebrates in the decomposition process toward lower latitudes. Therefore, this analysis contradicts the argument that invertebrates have a greater role in the decomposition of aquatic ecosystems at higher latitudes while microorganisms would be more important at minors. Temperature result also contradicts the preview and results of this and other reviews where it could reveal some variation of invertebrate effect. No weakness of invertebrate exclusion methods (mesh bags, electric field or toxic) or even the standardized mesh bag difference (a standardized difference between coarse and fine mesh bags) was found. In contrast to the most of literature, these parameters did not show any significant relationship with the effect size. However should be difficult affirm there is no additive effects of experimental exclusion or also standardized mesh size difference. Conversely, other factors interfere significantly in the decomposition mediated by invertebrates such as detritus origin (allochthonous or autochthonous) and experimental duration. Probably other parameters besides the not included in this analysis could explain the effect of invertebrates on leaf decomposition, however an insufficient number of available parameters hamper this assay. We conclude that this synthesis indicates that the role of detritivorous invertebrates should be included in biogeochemical models, which consider nutrient cycling in temperate or tropical aquatic ecosystems. More specifically these models should incorporate environmental parameters such as detritus origin, as well methodological parameters such as experimental duration.