Descripción del proyecto
Investigación de la forma en que interactúan los organismos
Las interacciones ecológicas son la base de los ecosistemas, ya que desempeñan un papel fundamental en la disponibilidad de los servicios que estos prestan. Los métodos empleados para comprender estas interacciones han considerado procesos ecológicos y evolutivos en comunidades a partir del tamaño corporal promedio de las especies. Con todo, estos métodos podrían ser imperfectos ya que omiten los cambios, a menudo drásticos, de tamaño corporal de los organismos durante su desarrollo. El objetivo del proyecto financiado con fondos europeos EcoEvoDevoNetwork es realizar una investigación pionera sobre la forma en que los procesos evolutivos, ecológicos y del desarrollo determinan la aparición y el mantenimiento de redes complejas de organismos que interactúan entre sí. Los resultados del estudio abrirán nuevas perspectivas en las complejas redes ecoevolutivas y ofrecerán herramientas para evaluar y vigilar los efectos de las actividades humanas en los ecosistemas.
Objetivo
Ecological interactions are the backbone of ecosystems and play an essential role in the availability of the services they provide. These interactions are to a large extent dictated by the body size of the interacting organisms. Efforts to understand the origin and maintenance of networks of interacting organisms have considered ecological and evolutionary processes in communities based on species-averaged body size. However, this species-centric approach neglects the often dramatic body size changes of organisms during their development. EcoEvoDevoNetwork will for the first time explore how evolutionary, ecological and developmental processes shape the emergence and maintenance of complex networks of interacting organisms, and will investigate how these processes mediate responses to environmental change. The result will open new vistas in complex eco-evolutionary networks and provide tools to assess and monitor the impacts of human activities on ecosystems. The research proposed here will build on recently developed ecological framework that synthesize size-structured models and trophic network models, and will extend it by incorporating evolutionary processes. This extended framework will for the first time explicitly account for processes at three different levels of biological organization: individual, population and community, in an ecological and evolutionary context. The applicant has a strong background in eco-evolutionary dynamics of size-structured populations, and will benefit from the expertise of the supervisor (Dr. C. Melián) in eco-evolutionary networks and statistical modeling during this project. The excellent supervision, infrastructure and facilities at the host institute will ensure the successful execution of this project and will provide a unique opportunity for the applicant to build a strong career in science.
Ámbito científico
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
8600 Dubendorf
Suiza