Projects
Effects of climate-change driven diet shift on community composition and ecosystem functioning in an invasive crustacean (ClimateShift)
Megvalósítás alatt lévő/Futó projekt
Summary:
Summary:
Recent research suggests that ectothermic organisms with an omnivorous diet adapt by changing their food preference to accommodate their metabolic processes, which vary with the increasing temperature. Our research aims to understand how this change in food preference affects the dynamics of communities and the associated functioning of the ecosystem. To achieve our goal, we will examine the change in temperature-dependent food preference for the widespread invasive shrimp, Limnomysis benedeni, and its effects on the dynamics of plankton communities and the functioning of the ecosystem. We plan to achieve this by combining experimental (laboratory and mesocosm) and empirical field approaches and state-of-the-art methods used in nutritional ecology studies (stable isotope studies and molecular analyses of intestinal content).
Aims:
Our research’s primary goal is to understand better the changing food preference of invasive species due to global warming. Within this, we will examine the temperature dependence of the food preference of a widespread invasive shrimp species; its effects on the temporal composition of the planktonic community and the functioning of the ecosystem; and the dependence of the effects on different climatic conditions (constant temperature difference and extreme climatic events).
