Investigating food web rewiring under drought

Human activities are modifying the planet in many ways, via climate change, land use change, and environmental contamination. This is accelerating species extinction across the tree of life. Safeguarding biodiversity requires an accurate understanding of how nature is organized—species interact with each other in complex networks, such as when a predator consumes a prey, or a pollinator visits a flower. If one species disappears from the system—or begins behaving in novel ways—this can have a ripple effect across the network. This project investigates how climate change rewires ecological networks due species extinctions and novel predatory behaviour. This project will use an emergent method, amino acid stable isotope analysis, to robustly measure dietary shifts, and document the resilience of biodiversity to drought intensification in a biodiversity hotspot.

Faculty Supervisor:

Diane Srivastava

Student:

Partner:

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: