UCRAN20052 - ¿Son los efectos adversos del cambio cli

In animals, increasing evidence suggests that a key way in which climate change affects individuals is by altering species interactions, thus decreasing food availability. It is however not known how universal this mechanism of climate effects on species persistence is and to what extent climate change may be affecting species more directly, by increasing physiological stress. This project proposes to close this knowledge gap by exploring how a carnivorous plant, which relies on prey insects for most of its nutrient uptake, responds to the combined of effects of warming and prey removal. Integrating experimental and empirical analyses, the two main objective of the proposed work are to (i) set up an in-situ passive warming experiment where plant access to nutrients via insect prey is also manipulated; and (ii) assess the performance of population projections that assume various pathways of climate effects based on experimental results. The project will be carried out in three Mediterranean heathland patches in the Sierra of Cadiz, where the study species, the dewy pine (Drosophyllum lusitanicum), has been monitored since 2011. In each patch, we will set up five replicates of passive warming (using open-top chambers), prey removal, and a combination of warming and prey removal. We will measure plant demographic rates, visually inspect physiological stress (i.e., desiccation), and quantify the abundance and diversity of insect fauna caught by plants monthly. We will then build, project, and compare the performance of population projection models that include or omit results from the experiment. This project will ultimately allow us to synthesize theory on the mechanisms through which climate change drives threats to biodiversity. The experience in biodemographic analyses that the researcher executing it will gain will also form the basis for expending the research and analyses to existing international projects.