Estella Percarpio

Title of Work: 

Eco-Evolutionary Processes in a Predator-Prey System Facing an Environmental Disturbance

Abstract: 

As humans continue to change the environment, it is essential to understand how disturbances impact an ecosystem’s resilience. Indirect evolutionary facilitation is one way biodiversity increases ecosystem resilience to a disturbance. Indirect evolutionary facilitation is when a non-evolving predator can be rescued from extinction by the adaptive evolution of its prey due to a trade-off for the prey between defense against predation and population growth rate. To fill in the gap of discontinuous disturbances in indirect evolutionary rescue research, I carried out a 30-day experiment where I discontinuously disturbed ​​Brachionus calyciflorus and two genetic strains of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with microplastics. The results of this experiment are slightly incomplete because I did not have time to identify the two strains of algae. Still, I concluded that disturbances significantly affected the rotifers. The discontinuously disturbed rotifers grew faster and had higher final populations than the continually disturbed and undisturbed populations. Additionally, the cultures with a lower density of microplastic disturbances generally had higher populations than those with a higher microplastic density. My experiment shows that discontinuous disturbances can increase predator populations compared to a system without or too much disturbance.

Title of Work (Global Language):  

Ökoevolutionäre Prozesse in einem Räuber-Beute System unter dem Einfluss von Umweltstörungen

Abstract (Global Language):

Da Menschen die Umwelt weiterhin verändern, ist es wichtig zu verstehen, wie sich Störungen auf die Widerstandsfähigkeit Ökosystemen auswirken. Indirekte evolutionäre Förderung ist eine Möglichkeit, wie Biodiversität die Widerstandsfähigkeit von Ökosystemen gegenüber Störungen erhöht. Indirekte evolutionäre Förderung ist, wenn ein nicht weiterentwickelnder Räuber durch die adaptive Evolution seiner Beute vor dem Aussterben gerettet werden kann, weil die Beute einen Kompromiss zwischen der Verteidigung gegen den Räuber und der Wachstumsrate der Population eingeht. Um die Lücke diskontinuierlicher Störungen in der Forschung zur indirekten evolutionären Rettung zu füllen, habe ich ein 30-tägiges Experiment durchgeführt, in dem ich Brachionus calyciflorus und zwei genetische Stämme von Chlamydomonas reinhardtii diskontinuierlich mit Mikroplastik gestört habe. Die Ergebnisse dieses Experiments sind etwas unvollständig, da ich keine Zeit hatte, die beiden Algenstämme zu identifizieren. Dennoch kam ich zu dem Schluss, dass die Störungen die Rädertierchen signifikant beeinflusst haben. Die diskontinuierlich gestörten Rädertiere wuchsen schneller und hatten höhere End Populationen als die kontinuierlich gestörten und ungestörten Populationen. Darüber hinaus hatten Kulturen mit einer geringeren Dichte an Mikroplastik Störungen im Allgemeinen höhere Populationen als solche mit einer höheren Mikroplastik Dichte. Mein Experiment zeigt, dass diskontinuierliche Störungen die Räuberpopulationen im Vergleich zu einem System ohne oder mit zu vielen Störungen erhöhen können.

Elevator Pitch Video

Elevator Pitch Transcript: 

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Hi. My name is Stella Precarpio, and this is my elevator pitch on eco evolutionary processes in a predator prey system facing the rental disturbance

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As an overview. I study environmental and sustainability studies as well as German, and I studied at the University of Constance in Constance, Germany.

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Before I started my 1st semester I participated in an orientation program called Go Constance, which is designed to help international students get adjusted to German as a language as well as the culture and get to know other students as well.

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Then, in my 1st semester I took my mainly German language courses and one subject major course, and I had a great time. Honestly. Here's some pictures of the lake and the river, and the library, and some places I'd like to hang out like Bismachtrum, where you could watch the sunset, or just hang out with friends

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For my internship. I got a position at a research group called Agate Becks, at the University of Constance, where I carried out an experiment regarding a concept called indirect evolutionary rescue. Indirect evolutionary rescue is a concept that when a prey population has genetic diversity, and a predator is disturbed that that diversity in that prey population can help the predator recover from that disturbance.

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My research group had done an experiment regarding this concept previously, but they'd only done continuous to services. So for my project. I was

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testing this theory within discontinuous disturbances. To do this I carried out a lab experiment where I had 9 different disturbance regimes, and I worked under a sterile, clean bench, and I worked with microscopes and different analytical tools to both count and analyze the data that I had.

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What I found was that populations that were disturbed with a lower concentration of microplastics, and that were disturbed less frequently or not continuously, had higher populations. At the end of the experiment.

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They also had a higher growth rate.

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in terms of the Independent in terms of the work culture in Germany it was very independent. I had never carried out an experiment like this before, but my professor trusted me to

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do everything correctly and work with the lab technicians. To carry out this experiment. And

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they were just happy to have someone working on this project so diligently because I had to carry out the experiment for about 30 days straight, which was difficult. But I learned a lot, and I'm really happy I got to do it.

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Overall, I had a really great time in Constance. I got to travel a lot of different countries and cities like Prague and Greece. We did little bike tours around the lake, which is really common. They have a great bike bike network system in Constance

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and I just got to know really really great people, both from Germany and international. So if any of this interests you regarding my work regarding German Constance, or just the general experiences of studying abroad. I hope to see you at the summit. Okay, bye, thank you.

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