Uma hipótese integradora da especialização ecológica

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Gabriel Moreira Félix Ferreira
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; Brasil; ICB - INSTITUTO DE CIÊNCIAS BIOLOGICAS; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Conservacao e Manejo da Vida Silvestre; UFMG
• Palavras-chave em Português: Ecologia; Ciência; Especialização
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/1843/36049

For a given species exploiting a range of resources, what is the best strategy: generalism or specialization? This is an old debate in the literature, which has remained unsolved for decades. Recently, we proposed a parsimonious hypothesis, “The integrative hypothesis of ecological specialization” (IHES), which helps solve this dilemma. Here we provide empirical support for this hypothesis and show how it can solve also another debate: nestedness vs. modularity in ecological networks. Using an extensive host-parasite database, we confirmed three major predictions of the IHES: (i) niche homogenization at small scales, (ii) a combined topology in interaction networks, and (iii) scale-dependence of trade-offs and resource breadth processes. By reconciling traditional hypotheses and connecting previously disjointed debates in parasitology and ecology, our hypothesis represents a significant step towards ecological synthesis. Moreover, the IHES is based on three elementary assumptions that also could be true in non-ecological complex systems.