Luis Moliner Cachazo

Past Life and Environments

KCL

UCL

Ben Price (Natural History Museum of London),

A major focus of community ecology is understanding the drivers of biodiversity including how and why so many species can coexist. In flood-pulse driven systems, communities switch from terrestrial to aquatic species based on a range of environmental filters that operate across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Quantifying the relative importance of different mechanisms, including dispersal, competition and predation, that occur in these heterogeneous habitats will provide insights about conditions that promote biodiversity across a wide range of ecosystems.
Using the World Heritage Ramsar-listed Okavango Delta as a model system, this project will follow the phenology of community development with a focus on reaches with temporary hydroperiods in Botswana.
When floodplains and pools are inundated by water from the main river three main sources of nutrients can be identified, and these evidence the connection between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems: soil, detritus (from decayed macrophytes and terrestrial plants) and mammal faeces, all of them contribute to the increase of primary production (phytoplankton), and subsequently originate bursts of zooplankton that foster fish populations and water birds.
A central focus of this project will be the collection of empirical datasets related to plant and animal biodiversity along an aquatic-terrestrial transition zone. The field collections will be used to explore community composition, trophic interactions and food web structure.

Given changing climate conditions, ever-increasing tourism and use of water resources (with the threat of extraction upstream in Angola and Namibia), it is essential to understand the relative impact of environmental conditions on the structure and function of ecosystems. By quantifying the relative influence of the environment vis-à-vis dispersal and biotic interactions on biodiversity, this project will contribute an ecological evidence-base and ecological tools for river-basin managers to promote ecosystem-scale conservation in a changing world.

Dr Michael Murray-Hudson (Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana) website: https://www.ori.ub.bw

• Department of Geography Small Grants Fund, Round 2 – King’s College London

• Luis Moliner Cachazo (2019) The tiny jewellers of rivers and their miraculous silk