Project
Toward a synthetic understanding of the temporal, latitudinal and multi-scale variation of community assembly mechanisms.Community Assembly theory is recognized as the conceptual framework that unifies community ecology. This theory had its central role reinforced when conceptual synthesis argued that community ecology should move from a pattern-based to a mechanistic-based approach to dispose of the stigma of being an unworthy “contingent science”. Since then, rather than investigating patterns, community assembly theory aims to: (i) understand how four classes of fundamental mechanisms (e.g. historical contingencies, niche-based mechanisms, dispersal, and stochastic-mechanisms) interact to set community dynamics and; (ii) predict at which ecological/evolutionary contexts each of these mechanisms is likely to be either relevant or negligible. Both goals can be successfully achieved when one tests different community assembly hypotheses (e.g. Janzen’s Hypothesis) using a framework that integrates local studies replicated at different ecological contexts and multi-scale analytical approaches. In this thesis, using different elevational gradients around the world, I seek to evaluate whether the relative importance of the four aforementioned assembly mechanisms changes over time (Chapter 1), latitudes (Chapter 2) and across scales (Chapter 3) in a similar way to that predicted by Janzen’s hypothesis.
Keywords
community assembly, Elevational grandient, community ecology, macroecologyPublications
1- Integrative taxonomy of new firefly taxa from the Atlantic RainforestSilveira, Luiz, Gabriel Khattar, Paula Souto, José Ricardo M. Mermudes, Daniela M. Takiya, Ricardo F. Monteiro
2016 Systematics and Biodiversity
2- Biology and phenology of three leaf beetle species (Chrysomelidae) in a montane forest in southeast Brazil*
Flinte, Vivian, Ethel Hentz, Barbara Morgado, Anne Lima, Gabriel Khattar, Ricardo Monteiro, Margarete Macedo
2015 ZooKeys
3- Insect elevational specialization in a tropical biodiversity hotspot
Macedo, Margarete V., Ricardo F. Monteiro, Vivian Flinte, Mario Almeida-Neto, Gabriel Khattar, Luiz F. L. da Silveira, Cristina de O. Araújo, Rodrigo de O. Araújo, Carolina Colares, Carlos V. S. Gomes, Clarice B. Mendes, Eduardo F. Santos, Peter J. Mayhew,
2018 Insect Conservation and Diversity
