<p>Many of the earth’s ecosystems are experiencing large species losses due to human impacts such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, climate change, species invasions, pollution, and overfishing. Due to the complex interactions between species in food webs the extinction of one species could lead to a cascade of further extinctions and hence cause dramatic changes in species composition and ecosystem processes. The complexity of ecological systems makes it difficult to study them empirically. The systems often consist of large species numbers with lots of interactions between species. Investigating ecological communities within a theoretical approach, using mathematical models and computer simulations, is an alternative or a complement to experimental studies. This thesis is a collection of theoretical studies. We use model food webs in order to explore how biodiversity (species number) affects the response of communities to species loss (Paper I-III) and to environmental variability (Paper IV).</p><p>In paper I and II we investigate the risk of secondary extinctions following deletion of one species. It is shown that resistance against additional species extinctions increases with redundancy (number of species per functional group) (Paper I) in the absence of competition between basal species but decreases with redundancy in the presence of competition between basal species (Paper II). It is further shown that food webs with low redundancy run the risk of losing a greater proportion of species following a species deletion in a deterministic environment but when demographic stochasticity is included the benefits of redundancy are largely lost (Paper II). This finding implies that in the construction of nature reserves the advantages of redundancy for conservation of communities may be lost if the reserves are small in size. Additionally, food webs show higher risks of further extinctions after the loss of basal species and herbivores than after the loss of top predators (Paper I and II).</p><p>Secondary extinctions caused by a primary extinction and mediated through direct and indirect effects, are likely to occur with a time delay since the manifestation of indirect effects can take long time to appear. In paper III we show that the loss of a top predator leads to a significantly earlier onset of secondary extinctions in model communities than does the loss of a species from other trophic levels. If local secondary extinctions occur early they are less likely to be balanced by immigration of species from local communities nearby implying that secondary extinctions caused by the loss of top predators are less likely to be balanced by dispersal than secondary extinctions caused by the loss of other species. As top predators are vulnerable to human-induced disturbances on ecosystems in the first place, our results suggest that conservation of top predators should be a priority. Moreover, in most cases time to secondary extinction is shown to increase with species richness indicating the decay of ecological communities to be slower in species-rich than in species-poor communities.</p><p>Apart from the human-induced disturbances that often force species towards extinction the environment is also, to a smaller or larger extent, varying over time in a natural way. Such environmental stochasticity influences the dynamics of populations. In paper IV we compare the responses of food webs of different sizes to environmental stochasticity. Species-rich webs are found to be more sensitive to environmental stochasticity. Particularly, species-rich webs lose a greater proportion of species than species-poor webs and they also begin losing species faster than species-poor webs. However, once one species is lost time to final extinction is longer in species-rich webs than in species-poor webs. We also find that the results differ depending on whether species respond similarly to environmental fluctuations or whether they are totally uncorrelated in their response. For a given species richness, communities with uncorrelated species responses run a considerable higher risk of losing a fixed proportion of species compared with communities with correlated species responses.</p>

Many of the earth’s ecosystems are experiencing large species losses due to human impacts such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, climate change, species invasions, pollution, and overfishing. Due to the complex interactions between species in food webs the extinction of one species could lead to a cascade of further extinctions and hence cause dramatic changes in species composition and ecosystem processes. The complexity of ecological systems makes it difficult to study them empirically. The systems often consist of large species numbers with lots of interactions between species. Investigating ecological communities within a theoretical approach, using mathematical models and computer simulations, is an alternative or a complement to experimental studies. This thesis is a collection of theoretical studies. We use model food webs in order to explore how biodiversity (species number) affects the response of communities to species loss (Paper I-III) and to environmental variability (Paper IV). In paper I and II we investigate the risk of secondary extinctions following deletion of one species. It is shown that resistance against additional species extinctions increases with redundancy (number of species per functional group) (Paper I) in the absence of competition between basal species but decreases with redundancy in the presence of competition between basal species (Paper II). It is further shown that food webs with low redundancy run the risk of losing a greater proportion of species following a species deletion in a deterministic environment but when demographic stochasticity is included the benefits of redundancy are largely lost (Paper II). This finding implies that in the construction of nature reserves the advantages of redundancy for conservation of communities may be lost if the reserves are small in size. Additionally, food webs show higher risks of further extinctions after the loss of basal species and herbivores than after the loss of top predators (Paper I and II). Secondary extinctions caused by a primary extinction and mediated through direct and indirect effects, are likely to occur with a time delay since the manifestation of indirect effects can take long time to appear. In paper III we show that the loss of a top predator leads to a significantly earlier onset of secondary extinctions in model communities than does the loss of a species from other trophic levels. If local secondary extinctions occur early they are less likely to be balanced by immigration of species from local communities nearby implying that secondary extinctions caused by the loss of top predators are less likely to be balanced by dispersal than secondary extinctions caused by the loss of other species. As top predators are vulnerable to human-induced disturbances on ecosystems in the first place, our results suggest that conservation of top predators should be a priority. Moreover, in most cases time to secondary extinction is shown to increase with species richness indicating the decay of ecological communities to be slower in species-rich than in species-poor communities. Apart from the human-induced disturbances that often force species towards extinction the environment is also, to a smaller or larger extent, varying over time in a natural way. Such environmental stochasticity influences the dynamics of populations. In paper IV we compare the responses of food webs of different sizes to environmental stochasticity. Species-rich webs are found to be more sensitive to environmental stochasticity. Particularly, species-rich webs lose a greater proportion of species than species-poor webs and they also begin losing species faster than species-poor webs. However, once one species is lost time to final extinction is longer in species-rich webs than in species-poor webs. We also find that the results differ depending on whether species respond similarly to environmental fluctuations or whether they are totally uncorrelated in their response. For a given species richness, communities with uncorrelated species responses run a considerable higher risk of losing a fixed proportion of species compared with communities with correlated species responses.

Future global change scenarios predict a dramatic loss of biodiversity for many regions in the world, potentially reducing the resistance and resilience of ecosystem functions. Once before, during Plio-Pleistocene glaciations, harsher climatic conditions in Europe as compared to North America led to a more depauperate tree flora. Here we hypothesize that this climate driven species loss has also reduced functional diversity in Europe as compared to North America. We used variation in 26 traits for 154 North American and 66 European tree species and grid-based co-occurrences derived from distribution maps to compare functional diversity patterns of the two continents. First, we identified similar regions with respect to contemporary climate in the temperate zone of North America and Europe. Second, we compared the functional diversity of both continents and for the climatically similar subregions using the functional dispersion-index (FDis) and the functional richness index (FRic). Third, we accounted in these comparisons for grid-scale differences in species richness, and, fourth, investigated the associated trait spaces using dimensionality reduction. For gymnosperms we find similar functional diversity on both continents, whereas for angiosperms functional diversity is significantly greater in Europe than in North America. These results are consistent across different scales, for climatically similar regions and considering species richness patterns. We decomposed these differences in trait space occupation into differences in functional diversity vs. differences in functional identity. We show that climate-driven species loss on a continental scale might be decoupled from or at least not linearly related to changes in functional diversity. This might be important when analyzing the effects of climate-driven biodiversity change on ecosystem functioning.

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2018-07-12T18:34:58Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Fernando Landa Sobral - 2017.pdf: 4318937 bytes, checksum: 708b794873ab478ce41764a3c2942ea2 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-07-13T10:38:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Fernando Landa Sobral - 2017.pdf: 4318937 bytes, checksum: 708b794873ab478ce41764a3c2942ea2 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-13T10:38:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Fernando Landa Sobral - 2017.pdf: 4318937 bytes, checksum: 708b794873ab478ce41764a3c2942ea2 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-20 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The diversity of species naturally inhabiting an insular location is ultimately snapeO Uy tne combined processes of colonization, speciation and extinction, and firstly by the set of environmental, ecological, historical and evolutionary factors that determine the interchange of these processes. However, the diversity of species currently inhabiting many islands around the globe is also shaped by the introduction process. Using the functional traits and phylogenetic relationships of bird species, we investigated how different natural and anthropogenic mechanisms have shaped the species diversity on different continental and oceanic islands distributed around the globe. In the first chapter, rve investigated whether the species introduction compensates for the ecological and evolutionary information lost following the species extinction. In general, we found that introduced species have ecological roles and evolutionary histories different from extinct species. This means that introductions truly do not compensate for extinctions. In the second chapter, we investigated whether biogeographic, environmental and anthropogenic factors can explain the proportion of introduced bird species across different islands, and what the impact of these introductions on the functional and phylogenetic diversity of assemblages. We found that the proportion of introduced bird species is negatively mediated by the native species richness, and positively by the human population size found across the islands. In addition, we found that the ecological selectivity observed in introductions of bird species has decreased the mean functional diversity, but not the mean phylogenetic diversity, among species occurring across the insular assemblages. This shows that ecological patterns do not always reflect evolutionary patterns observed among species. Finally, in the third chapter we accessed the functional distance among visitor bird species and resident bird species to investigate the colonization success of insulai locations. We found that when species occur as visitors across the islands, they show a higher functional distance to the nearest resident species than when they occur as residents. This indicites that the failure in the colonization process of insular locations increases with the functional distance to the nearest resident species, which corroborates the pre-adaptation to the environment hypothesis. / A diversidade de espécies naturalmente habitando uma localidade insular é ultimamente moldada pelos processos combinados de colonização, especiação e extinção, e primeiramente pelo conjunto de fatores ambientais, ecológicos, históricos e evolutivos, que determinam o intercâmbio desses processos. Entretanto, a diversidade de espdcies atualmente habitando muitas ilhas ao redor do globo também 6 moldada pelo processo de introdução. Usando os atributos funcionais e as relações de parentesco de espécies de aves, nós investigamos como diferentes mecanismos naturais e antrópicos tem moldada a diversidade de espécies em diferentes ilhas continentais e oceânicas distribuídas ao redor do globo. No primeiro capitulo, nós investigamos se a introdução de espécies compensa pelas informagOes ecol6gicas e evolutivas perdidas por meio da extingSo de espdcies. De maneira geral, nós encontramos que as espécies introduzidas possuem papéis ecológicos e histórias evolutivas diferentes das espdcies extintas. Isso significa que as introdug6es verdadeiramente ndo compensam pelas exting6es. No segundo capitulo, n6s investigamos se determinados fatores biogeográficos, ambientais e antrópicos podem explicar a proporção de espécies de aves introduzidas ao longo de diferentes ilhas, e qual o impacto dessas introdug6es sobre a diversidade funcional e filogendtica das assembleias. N6s encontramos que a proporgSo de espdcies de aves introduzidas d mediada negativamente pela riqueza de espdcies nativas, e positivamente pelo tamanho da populagSo humana encontrada nas ilhas. Aldm disso, n6s encontramos que a seletividade ecol6gica observada nas introdug6es de espdcies de aves tem reduzido a diversidade funcional mddia, mas n6o a diversidade filogenetica mddia, entre as espdcies ocorrentes ao longo das assembleias insulares. Isso mostra que os padr6es ecol6gicos nem sempre refletem os padroes evolutivos observados entre as espdcies. Finalmente, no terceiro capftulo n6s acessamos a distdncia funcional entre espdcies de aves visitantes e espdcies de aves residentes para investigar o sucesso na colonizagio de localidades insulares. Nos encontramos que quando as espdcies ocorrem como visitantes ao longo das ilhas, elas mostram uma distdncia funcional maior para as espdcies residentes mais proximas do que quando elas ocorrem como residentes. Isso indica que a falha no processo de colonizagSo de localidades insulares aumenta com a dist6ncia funcional para as espécies residentes mais próximas, o que corrobora a hipótese de pré-adaptação ao ambiente.

Submitted by (ana.araujo@ufrpe.br) on 2016-06-01T16:43:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Cintia Maria Lopes Ferreira.pdf: 3870360 bytes, checksum: a5104bc0f1bab8950ee0485a7c45c453 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-01T16:43:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cintia Maria Lopes Ferreira.pdf: 3870360 bytes, checksum: a5104bc0f1bab8950ee0485a7c45c453 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The destruction of habitats is one of the most important factors leading to species extinction and loss of diversity, which is one of the most studied issues in biological and conservation in recent years. Since the human intervention on ecosystems is growing, resulting in fragmentation and loss of habitats, it is important to analyze the effects of these changes in spatial configuration have on ecological processes. In this work we aimed to study the dynamics of a model in which a predator and prey interact in a homogeneous environment with spatial structure when a proportion of the system is destroyed. We conducted this analysis using techniques from computer simulations as well as analytical tools. We obtained three different regimes depending on the values of model parameters in which there is coexistence of prey and predator, extinction of the predator with survival of prey and the extinction of prey leading to the extinction of the predator. We also studied the effects of destruction of a proportion of habitat on the system, and compared the results with those obtained for the case without fragmentation. We observed that increasing the number of destroyed sites leads to a reduction of the population of predators. We also observed that for a destruction of more than 15% of the sites, the regime of extinction of two species is no longer observed. / A destruição de habitats é um dos fatores mais relevantes que levam à extinção das espécies e perda da diversidade biológica e que é um dos assuntos de conservação mais estudados e debatidos nos últimos anos. Uma vez que a taxa de modificações humanas sobre os ecossistemas vem crescendo, resultando na fragmentação e perda de habitat, é importante analisar os efeitos que essas mudanças na configuração espacial têm nos processos ecológicos. Nesse trabalho tivemos como objetivo estudar a dinâmica de um modelo em que um predador e sua presa interagem em um ambiente homogêneo com estrutura espacial quando uma proporção do sistema é destruído. Realizamos essa análise através de técnicas de simulações computacionais e também ferramentas analíticas. Obtivemos três regimes diferentes dependentes dos valores dos parâmetros do modelo: coexistência de presa e predador, extinção do predador com sobrevivência da presa e extinção da presa levando a extinção do predador. Estudamos também os efeitos da destruição de uma proporção do habitat sobre o sistema, e comparamos os resultados com aqueles obtidos para o caso sem fragmentação. Observamos que o aumento na proporção de sítios destruídos leva a uma diminuição da população de predadores. Também observamos que para uma destruição de mais que 15% dos sítios, o regime de extinção das duas espécies não é mais observado.

Future global change scenarios predict a dramatic loss of biodiversity for many regions in the world, potentially reducing the resistance and resilience of ecosystem functions. Once before, during Plio-Pleistocene glaciations, harsher climatic conditions in Europe as compared to North America led to a more depauperate tree flora. Here we hypothesize that this climate driven species loss has also reduced functional diversity in Europe as compared to North America. We used variation in 26 traits for 154 North American and 66 European tree species and grid-based co-occurrences derived from distribution maps to compare functional diversity patterns of the two continents. First, we identified similar regions with respect to contemporary climate in the temperate zone of North America and Europe. Second, we compared the functional diversity of both continents and for the climatically similar subregions using the functional dispersion-index (FDis) and the functional richness index (FRic). Third, we accounted in these comparisons for grid-scale differences in species richness, and, fourth, investigated the associated trait spaces using dimensionality reduction. For gymnosperms we find similar functional diversity on both continents, whereas for angiosperms functional diversity is significantly greater in Europe than in North America. These results are consistent across different scales, for climatically similar regions and considering species richness patterns. We decomposed these differences in trait space occupation into differences in functional diversity vs. differences in functional identity. We show that climate-driven species loss on a continental scale might be decoupled from or at least not linearly related to changes in functional diversity. This might be important when analyzing the effects of climate-driven biodiversity change on ecosystem functioning.

Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-01-16T10:46:45Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Daniel Augusta Zacarias - 2017 (1).pdf: 10564997 bytes, checksum: 3beb8a6a9c5b45ffef1c47b91fb5ee3c (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-01-16T10:47:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Daniel Augusta Zacarias - 2017 (1).pdf: 10564997 bytes, checksum: 3beb8a6a9c5b45ffef1c47b91fb5ee3c (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-16T10:47:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Daniel Augusta Zacarias - 2017 (1).pdf: 10564997 bytes, checksum: 3beb8a6a9c5b45ffef1c47b91fb5ee3c (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Biodiversity conservation is in crisis and urgent responses are needed to reverse the extinction of species, the proliferation of invasive species and the fragmentation of habitats. Among several approaches being implemented, the protection of species with great dispersal capacity and that play important ecological role has been advocated as a solution, since the protection of their habitat in parallel contributes to the protection of other species and habitats. The elephant, a megagardener of forests and savannahs, represents this type of species in the sense that it inhabits vast areas, has a high dispersal capacity and guarantees the dispersion and growth of plant species in extensive areas. Unfortunately, the current situation of the elephant is not positive and international efforts have been developed to reverse the current scenarios of reduction of its abundance and the protection of its habitat. This thesis focuses on African elephant species (Loxodonta africana and Loxodonta cyclotis) and aims to contribute to the knowledge of the main challenges that must be embraced for their protection, using an interdisciplinary approach involving scientometric analysis, climate niche modelling, multi-scale modelling of habitat connectivity, quasi-linear regression models and structural equations and knowledge syntheses. Chapter I presents a systematic review of conservation genetics studies of the African savannah elephant and discusses the main research areas, the elephant populations involved and the main lines of research addressed. Chapter 2 presents the modelling of the climatic niche response to multi-temporal climate change and determines the potential for connectivity between remaining elephant habitats and chapter 3 presents the interaction between environmental, socioeconomic and governance indicators to explain abundance of elephants in Africa, based on the most recent IUCN estimates. The fourth chapter discusses the main challenges associated with the introduction of African elephants as a strategy for the recovery of lost ecological functions with the extinction of megafauna in the Pleistocene, and the fifth chapter, which concludes, presents the synthesis of challenges and opportunities for the conservation of African elephants. / A conservação da biodiversade está em crise e são necessárias respostas urgentes para reverter a extinção de espécies, a proliferação de espécies invasoras e a fragmentação de habitats. Dentre as várias abordagens sendo implementadas, a proteção de espécies com grande capacidade de dispersão e que desempenham papel ecológico importante tem sido advogada como solução, na medida em que a proteção de seu habitat paralelamente contribui para a proteção de outras espécies e habitats. O elefante, megajardineiro das florestas e savanas, representa este tipo de espécies, no sentido em que habita vastas áreas, tem elevada capacidade de dispersão e garante a dispersão e crescimento de espécies vegetais por vastas áreas. Infelizmente a situação actual do elefante não é positiva e esforços internacionais têm sido desenvolvidos no sentido de reverter os atuais cenários de redução de sua abundancia e a proteção do seu habitat. Esta tese debruça-se sobre as espécies de elefante africano (Loxodonta africana e Loxodonta cyclotis) e procura contribuir para o conhecimento dos principais desafios que devem ser abraçados para a sua proteção, servindo-se de uma abordagem interdisciplinar envolvendo análise cienciométrica, modelagem de nicho climático, modelagem multi-escala de conectividade de habitats, modelos de regressão quasi-linear e de equações estruturais e sínteses de conhecimento. O capítulo 1 apresenta faz a revisão sistemática dos estudos de genética de conservação do elefante africano de savana e discute os principais eixos de pesquisa, as populações de elefantes envolvidas e as principais linhas de pesquisa abordadas. O capítulo 2 apresenta a modelagem da resposta do nicho climático em função de alterações climáticas multi-temporais e determina o potencial de conectividade entre os habitats remanescentes de elefantes e o capítulo 3 apresenta a interação entre indicadores ambientais, socioeconômicos e de governança para explicar a abundância de elefantes em África, tomando como base nas mais recentes estimativas da IUCN. O quarto capítulo discute os principais desafios associados à introdução de elefantes africanos como estratégia para a recuperação de funções ecológicas perdidas com a extinção da megafauna no Pleistoceno e o quinto capítulo, que faz de conclusão, apresenta a síntese dos desafios e oportunidades para a conservação dos elefantes africanos.