Objetivo ASSESSMENT OF THE RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF PREDATION, COMPETITION AND POLLUTION ON THE DECOMPOSITION OF PLANT DETRITUS IN FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS. IN VITRO AND IN VIVO EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE THE BUILDING AND MAINTAINING MECHANISMS OF THE COMMUNITY INVOLVED IN THE DECOMPOSITION PROCESS OF PLANT DETRITUS IN RIVERS AND POOLS WILL BE DONE FOR DETERMINING THE RELATIONS BETWEEN HUMAN POLLUTION AND PATTERNS OF NATURAL DECOMPOSITION PROCESSES. THE RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF PREDATION, COMPETITION AND POLLUTION ALTERATION WILL BE ESTIMATED BOTH AT MICROBIC AND MACROBENTHONIC LEVELS. MANIPULATIONS AND TESTS AIM AT CONSIDERING A NEW HYPOTHESIS CONCERNING THE COMMUNITY MAINTENANCE, BASED NOT ON THE SELECTION OF SPECIES WITH A HIGHER COMPETITION CAPACITY BUT OF SPECIALISED GENOTYPES INSIDE EACH ANIMAL POPULATION COMPETING WITH OTHER SPECIES IN THE ENVIRONMENT. THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS WORK WILL REFLECT ON TWO AREAS: - EXTENSION OF THE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE PROCESSES WHICH ACT TO MAINTAIN HIGH SPECIES RICHNESS AND COMPLEXITY IN STREAM AND POND ECOSYSTEMS. MUCH DETAILED INFORMATION ON INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION, PREDATION AND POLLUTION, AND THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH THE UNDERLYING SUBSTRATUM WILL BE GAINED; - THE WORK WILL PROVIDE A TEST OF THE THEORY OF DIVERSITY MAINTENANCE. BY ANALYSING THE KEY FACTORS SEPARATELY AND IN COMBINATION, THIS RESEARCH WILL HELP CLARIFYING THE CURRENT THEORETICAL PROBLEMS. FURTHER IT WILL TEST THE THEORY USING A DIFFERENT ECOSYSTEM AND WILL HELP STENGTHENING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE MAINTENANCE OF COMMUNITY STRUCTURE IN STREAMS AND OTHER ECOSYSTEMS. THE PATTERNS OF DECOMPOSITION OF PLANT DETRITUS WILL BE DETERMINED UNDER VARIOUS CHEMICAL CONDITIONS TO SERVE AS POLLUTION TESTS. Programa(s) PRE-ENVPROT 3C - Sectoral research and development programme (EEC) in the field of environment (environmental protection and climatology) - indirect and concerted actions - Environmental protection -, 1981-1985 Tema(s) Data not available Convocatoria de propuestas Data not available Régimen de financiación CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinador UNIVERSITY OF ROME "LA SAPIENZA" Aportación de la UE Sin datos Dirección Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 00185 ROMA Italia Ver en el mapa Coste total Sin datos
