Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: NATHALIA PARIS

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : NATHALIA PARIS
DATE: 17/08/2023
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: Sala 306 do Bloco B do Campus de Santo André da Universidade Federal do ABC
TITLE:

Phylogenetic diversity of termites at different spatial scales

PAGES: 40
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Zoologia
SUMMARY:

Termites are hemimetabolous and eusocial insects that live in complex colonies. They exhibit a caste system, within which they have specific morphological characteristics and division of tasks. Termites have relatively high diversity and great abundance, especially in the tropics, however, most studies on the ecology of communities with these insects focus on traditional measures of diversity, such as alpha, beta and gamma. Phylogenetic Diversity is another dimension of diversity, which seeks to measure the amount of evolutionary history of a biological community, helping to understand and identify the ecological processes involved in structuring communities. To measure phylogenetic diversity, a robust phylogeny containing all species of a given community is utilized, in addition to a list of species. The general objective of this dissertation is to analyze the phylogenetic diversity of different termite communities, seeking to understand and explain their patterns. In Chapter I, we used data from Cancello et al. (2014), who assessed the diversity and abundance of termites along the latitudinal gradient in the Atlantic Forest. In it we tested the hypothesis that phylogenetic diversity increases as latitude decreases. In Chapter II, we used data collected by Carrijo (2013) in the Amazon Forest, on the banks of the Madeira River, where a strong edge effect was found on termite communities, with communities closest to the river being the poorest in number of termite species and abundance, also showing strong turnover. In this chapter we tested the hypothesis that the edge effect would also influence the phylogenetic diversity of communities. For both chapters, we used a phylogenetic hypothesis that integrated taxonomic and phylogenetic data from all known termite species, and provided a set of 1,000 trees that account for phylogenetic uncertainty. In Chapter I, there was a correlation between phylogenetic diversity (PD) and species richness (SR). In places further north of the studied gradient and with greater species richness, we found greater phylogenetic diversity (PD), corroborating our hypothesis. The site with the highest MPD value was the second furthest to the south, while the site with the lowest species richness had the highest MNTD value. Additionally, the site with the highest species richness and located further north exhibited the lowest MNTD value. Three sites showed negative ses.MPD values, suggesting phylogenetic clustering. In the other sites, the phylogenetic structure showed a pattern that did not differ significantly from what was randomly expected. In Chapter II, both PD and MPD exhibited a similar pattern to species richness, wherein communities close to the margin (P1) displayed lower diversity compared to the other plots (P2-4). Conversely, MNTD showed an inverse pattern, with all communities showing MNTD values close to zero, indicating the influence of stochastic processes in their structuring. As a general conclusion, we found a high correlation between phylogenetic diversity and alpha diversity in termites, with both following a consistent response pattern to the latitudinal gradient. Furthermore, the community structuring process in both Chapter I and Chapter II suggests that termite species are influenced primarily by neutral processes. Statistical analyses are currently underway to provide a more refined interpretation of the results from both Chapter I and Chapter II.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - Interno ao Programa - 1308531 - TIAGO FERNANDES CARRIJO
Membro Titular - Examinador(a) Interno ao Programa - 1848397 - ALBERTO JOSE ARAB OLAVARRIETA
Membro Titular - Examinador(a) Externo à Instituição - GABRIELA PROCÓPIO CAMACHO - USP
Membro Suplente - Examinador(a) Interno ao Programa - 1229106 - IVES HAIFIG