Descripción del proyecto
Cómo afectan las relaciones planta-insecto a la biodiversidad forestal
La biodiversidad no se distribuye de forma homogénea por el planeta. Por ejemplo, ¿por qué la variedad de flora y fauna de los bosques tropicales húmedos es mayor a la de los bosques templados? En el proyecto Diversity6continents, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, se investigarán las singulares redes tróficas de plantas e insectos en zonas de estudio de seis continentes y que comprenden tres pares de bosques de zonas tropicales y templadas. El estudio pretende distinguir si las diferencias latitudinales en la diversidad de insectos dependen de la diversidad filogenética o funcional de las plantas, de la especificidad del hospedador y de la diversidad o especificidad de los depredadores. Los resultados de la investigación, junto con la participación de trabajadores locales sobre el terreno, contribuirán a crear una base y un incentivo para la planificación estratégica de la conservación de la biodiversidad.
Objetivo
The study will examine one of the most fundamental, yet poorly understood patterns of global biodiversity distribution: How can so many species coexist in a tropical forest? This key question of current ecology will be studied using quantitative surveys of plant-herbivore-parasitoid food webs within paired sets of tropical and temperate forests from six continents, in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Gabon, Panama, the Czech Republic, Japan, and USA, sampled using canopy cranes, truck-mounted elevated platforms and forest felling. This novel type of data will be analysed using a new rarefaction method, developed to test mechanistic explanations for biodiversity patterns along ecological gradients. It will evaluate competing hypotheses explaining latitudinal trends in insect herbivore diversity by the variation in either phylogenetic or functional diversity of plants, the host specificity of herbivores, or the diversity and specificity of their parasitoids and predators. The study will thus examine the importance of bottom-up (plants) and top-down (enemies) drivers of latitudinal trends in herbivore food webs, central to ecological theory that postulates the role of specialized herbivores as density-dependent agents of mortality involved in maintaining high tropical plant diversity. The project builds upon prior research that produced one of the largest tropical food web data sets to expand it conceptually, methodologically and geographically. It will build a globally important research facility (a canopy crane in PNG) and link researchers and infrastructure from several countries in a major effort to draw together separate lines of tropical and temperate research. Study sites in the ILTER, NEON, CTFS/SIGEO, and Canopy Crane Network will participate. The internationally recognized paraecologist program will be expanded, PhD students from both European and developing countries will be trained, and conservation of rainforests by indigenous rainforest dwellers will be leveraged.
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological morphologycomparative morphology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiodiversity conservation
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological behavioural sciencesethologybiological interactions
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomology
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitución de acogida
370 05 Ceske Budejovice
Chequia