AQUATROP

What drives aquatic ecosystem stability under deforestation and climate change in the tropics?

Durée : 2021 - 2023
Programme : CNRS
Portée : Nationale

The general aim of AQUATROP is to understand how changes in community composition driven by deforestation, drought events, and their interactions, will affect the energetics of freshwater food webs and BEF relationships in Neotropical ecosystems. We will manipulate canopy cover and/or drought at the level of an entire, spatially-discrete ecosystem: the natural microcosm formed by rainwater-filled leaves of tank bromeliads. Response variables will represent the flow of energy across trophic levels in food webs (energy transfer rates, network multifunctionality), and one of the most important flux of carbon in ecosystems (detrital decomposition). All experiments will take place in French Guiana, one of the most species-rich regions for bromeliads and their biota.