Ecological models have problems showing the positive relationship between diversity and stability found in nature. Theory states that complex food webs have high extinction risks and low stability. However, persistent food webs found in nature are large and complex containing many interconnections between species. There are many possible mechanisms enabling persistent food webs such as; complex interaction patterns, asynchronous fluctuations of species densities, environmental fluctuations and spatial distribution. These factors have not been used in classical models. In this study, coloured environmental 1/f noise and dispersal between subpopulations were incorporated into a diamond shaped food web based on a model by Vasseur and Fox 2007. Contradictions between theoretical and empirical results regarding food webs can be resolved by detailed analyses of models, withholding stabilizing mechanisms. Weak environmental 1/f noise generated an increased coefficient of stability but the stabilizing effect of noise can be questioned because of a decreased mean food web biomass and reduced stabilizing effect when reddened. However, detailed studies of the food web revealed that noise can redistribute density proportions between species, evading lowest species density and thereby increase food web resistance to demographic stochasticity and catastrophes. Noise induced density proportion shifts imply that large population sizes are no insurance towards future increase in environmental variance. Synchrony of species environmental responses and dispersal between subpopulations can both have major influences on stability and extinction risk of smaller food webs indicating that spatial structure could be one of the dominating factors stabilizing complex food webs found in nature.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:21:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Marcos_2010_07-05-10.pdf: 927850 bytes, checksum: 13570c6d61616b1413fb06f5e981d383 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-31 / Habitat fragmentation is one of the main causes of environmental degradation and a great threat to world biodiversity. Fragmentation can disrupt pollination processes, affecting directly or indirectly pollinators and plants. In Brazil, the Cerrado Biome has lost most part of its vegetation cover in the last four decades, becoming a highly fragmented landscape with many small fragments, several medium-size and a few continuous areas of vegetation. Those remnants have high biological diversity with high level of endemism, but very little is known about the reproductive success of their species. Cardiopetalum calophyllum Schletdl. (Annonaceae) occurs in the Cerrado of Central Brazil, has dicogamy and is pollinated by small beetle called Lobiopa insularis. The reproductive success of C. calophyllum and the abundance of its pollinator were analyzed in fragment of different size from July 2009 to January 2010. The reproductive success was estimated using fruit and seed set rates. Flowers in anthesis were collected to quantify the pollinator abundance inside them. A positive correlation between reproductive success of C. calophyllum and the fragment size was found. However, no correlation was found between pollinator abundance and fragment size. The small fragments are more isolated than the larger ones. This can decrease the pollinator dispersion and gene flow among fragments, increasing inbreeding within population of small fragments. The abundance of Lobiopa insularis seems to be more related to its generalist habits than to the fragment size. In our study, the effect of fragment size and reproductive success of C. calophyllum was stronger in fragments smaller than 10 ha. However, fragment smaller than 20 ha also showed decrease in their productive success. / A fragmentação de habitats é considerada uma das mais poderosas forças de modificações dos ecossistemas, e em grande parte ocorre como resultado das atividades humanas. O Bioma Cerrado apesar de ser um dos hotspots com prioridades de conservação, nas últimas quatro décadas vem perdendo grande parte de sua cobertura vegetal, tornando-se uma paisagem altamente fragmentada com manchas de vegetação de diferentes tamanhos circundados, principalmente, por pastagem e agricultura. Cardiopetalum calophyllum Schletdl. é uma espécie vegetal presente no Cerrado, pertencente à família Annonaceae, polinizada por besouros pequenos, Lobiopa insularis. Com o objetivo de testar se fragmentos menores apresentam menor sucesso reprodutivo de C. calophyllum e menor abundância do polinizador, L. insularis, foram estudados indivíduos dessa espécie vegetal em 10 fragmentos de diferentes tamanhos no Cerrado do Brasil Central entre julho de 2009 a janeiro de 2010. O sucesso reprodutivo foi mensurado através da taxa de produção de frutos e sementes. Para quantificar a abundância do polinizador se fez necessário a coleta das flores, uma vez que o polinizador, L. insularis, se encontrava no interior da câmara floral. Houve uma relação positiva entre o sucesso reprodutivo de C. calophyllum e o tamanho do fragmento. Não houve relação entre a abundância do polinizador e o tamanho do fragmento. Os fragmentos pequenos estão mais distantes da vegetação natural mais próxima, e assim como os fragmentos maiores, possuem matriz do tipo pasto. Isso pode estar dificultando a dispersão do polinizador L. insularis e consequentemente impedindo o fluxo gênico de Cardiopetalum calophyllum entre os fragmentos, levando ao aumento da endogamia e causando falha na fertilização ou aborto de sementes durante o desenvolvimento nesses fragmentos. A abundância do polinizador Lobiopa insularis parece estar mais associada ao seu hábito generalista e a abundância de recursos, do que ao tamanho do fragmento. Nesse estudo o efeito do tamanho do fragmento no sucesso reprodutivo de C. calophyllum foi mais acentuado nos fragmentos < 10 ha. Entretanto, nos fragmentos com até 20 ha também houve redução no sucesso reprodutivo dessa espécie vegetal.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:21:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao_Marcos_2010_07-05-10.pdf: 927850 bytes, checksum: 13570c6d61616b1413fb06f5e981d383 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-31 / Habitat fragmentation is one of the main causes of environmental degradation and a great threat to world biodiversity. Fragmentation can disrupt pollination processes, affecting directly or indirectly pollinators and plants. In Brazil, the Cerrado Biome has lost most part of its vegetation cover in the last four decades, becoming a highly fragmented landscape with many small fragments, several medium-size and a few continuous areas of vegetation. Those remnants have high biological diversity with high level of endemism, but very little is known about the reproductive success of their species. Cardiopetalum calophyllum Schletdl. (Annonaceae) occurs in the Cerrado of Central Brazil, has dicogamy and is pollinated by small beetle called Lobiopa insularis. The reproductive success of C. calophyllum and the abundance of its pollinator were analyzed in fragment of different size from July 2009 to January 2010. The reproductive success was estimated using fruit and seed set rates. Flowers in anthesis were collected to quantify the pollinator abundance inside them. A positive correlation between reproductive success of C. calophyllum and the fragment size was found. However, no correlation was found between pollinator abundance and fragment size. The small fragments are more isolated than the larger ones. This can decrease the pollinator dispersion and gene flow among fragments, increasing inbreeding within population of small fragments. The abundance of Lobiopa insularis seems to be more related to its generalist habits than to the fragment size. In our study, the effect of fragment size and reproductive success of C. calophyllum was stronger in fragments smaller than 10 ha. However, fragment smaller than 20 ha also showed decrease in their productive success. / A fragmentação de habitats é considerada uma das mais poderosas forças de modificações dos ecossistemas, e em grande parte ocorre como resultado das atividades humanas. O Bioma Cerrado apesar de ser um dos hotspots com prioridades de conservação, nas últimas quatro décadas vem perdendo grande parte de sua cobertura vegetal, tornando-se uma paisagem altamente fragmentada com manchas de vegetação de diferentes tamanhos circundados, principalmente, por pastagem e agricultura. Cardiopetalum calophyllum Schletdl. é uma espécie vegetal presente no Cerrado, pertencente à família Annonaceae, polinizada por besouros pequenos, Lobiopa insularis. Com o objetivo de testar se fragmentos menores apresentam menor sucesso reprodutivo de C. calophyllum e menor abundância do polinizador, L. insularis, foram estudados indivíduos dessa espécie vegetal em 10 fragmentos de diferentes tamanhos no Cerrado do Brasil Central entre julho de 2009 a janeiro de 2010. O sucesso reprodutivo foi mensurado através da taxa de produção de frutos e sementes. Para quantificar a abundância do polinizador se fez necessário a coleta das flores, uma vez que o polinizador, L. insularis, se encontrava no interior da câmara floral. Houve uma relação positiva entre o sucesso reprodutivo de C. calophyllum e o tamanho do fragmento. Não houve relação entre a abundância do polinizador e o tamanho do fragmento. Os fragmentos pequenos estão mais distantes da vegetação natural mais próxima, e assim como os fragmentos maiores, possuem matriz do tipo pasto. Isso pode estar dificultando a dispersão do polinizador L. insularis e consequentemente impedindo o fluxo gênico de Cardiopetalum calophyllum entre os fragmentos, levando ao aumento da endogamia e causando falha na fertilização ou aborto de sementes durante o desenvolvimento nesses fragmentos. A abundância do polinizador Lobiopa insularis parece estar mais associada ao seu hábito generalista e a abundância de recursos, do que ao tamanho do fragmento. Nesse estudo o efeito do tamanho do fragmento no sucesso reprodutivo de C. calophyllum foi mais acentuado nos fragmentos < 10 ha. Entretanto, nos fragmentos com até 20 ha também houve redução no sucesso reprodutivo dessa espécie vegetal.

Elasmobranchs are among the oldest and most successful predators in the ocean, yet one of the most vulnerable to the direct and indirect effects of fishing. Many populations are rapidly declining around the world, and an increasing number is listed as threatened or endangered. The broader ecosystem consequences of these declines, and whether other marine predators can replace sharks, are open questions. In this thesis, I used a diverse set of data and modeling techniques to analyze long-term changes in elasmobranch populations in the Mediterranean Sea, and the consequences of shark declines on marine ecosystems. Because of its long history of fishing, the Mediterranean offers a unique perspective on the response of marine communities to exploitation over long time scales. Here, I reconstructed the history of elasmobranch exploitation over the past 200 years in pelagic, coastal and demersal communities. Results were combined meta-analytically to derive a general pattern of change for the entire region. Overall, I detected multiple cases of regional species extirpations, a strong correlation between historical intensity of exploitation and the stage of community degradation, and some cases of compensatory species increases. My results suggest that compared to other marine ecosystems worldwide, the Mediterranean Sea might be in an advanced stage of overexploitation. To gain more general conclusions about the patterns and consequences of shark declines in the ocean, I reviewed and reanalyzed documented changes in exploited elasmobranch communities around the world, and synthesized the effects of sharks on their prey and wider communities. This work revealed that sharks are abundant and diverse in little exploited or unexploited marine ecosystems but vulnerable to even light levels of fishing. The decline in large sharks has reduced natural mortality in a range of their prey, contributing to changes in abundance, distribution, and behaviour of marine megafauna that have few other predators. In some cases, this has resulted in cascading changes in prey populations and food-web structure. Overall, my thesis greatly enhanced our knowledge about the critical state of elasmobranchs in the Mediterranean Sea and the consequences of the declines of these important marine predators on marine ecosystems.

No description available.