Diego Fontaneto

RAVE: Rotifers as Vehicles for Epibiotic Bacteria - Non-trophic species interactions such as epibiosis are poorly studied and their impact on food web properties not easily quantified. Using rotifers and their attached bacteria, this project analyses two hypotheses on epibiosis in freshwater systems. (1) Epibiont-derived organic carbon is transported to the predators together with the host and forms a shortcut through the food web from dissolved organic carbon to higher predators. (2) Potentially pathogenic bacteria can attach to zooplankton and migrate with them, dispersing through great distances to areas that are considered pristine. The project follows a bottom-up approach from experimental assessments of the uptake of single cells attached to rotifers to the statistical inference on the effects of rotifer and bacterial communities. The questions are addressed by state-of-the-art methodologies, (tracer uptake, chemostat experiments, next generation sequencing and statistical models) by combining the expertise of a microbial ecologist (the experienced researcher, ER) and an evolutionary ecologist working on animals (the host). The study will be the first one to quantify the impact of epibionts on carbon transfer to higher trophic levels and the host-mediated distribution of bacterial genotypes in nature. The cross-disciplinary training of RAVE will considerably distinguish the ER from other microbial ecologist and prepare her for a further career in the field of microbe-zooplankton interactions.

DNAqua-Net: Developing new genetic tools for bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems in Europe - The protection, preservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems and their functions is of global importance. For European states it became legally binding mainly through the EU-Water Framework Directive (WFD). In order to assess the ecological status of a given water body, aquatic biodiversity data are obtained and compared to a reference water body. The quantified mismatch thus obtained determines the extent of potential management actions. The current approach to biodiversity assessment is based on morpho-taxonomy. This approach has many drawback such as being time consuming, limited in temporal and spatial resolution, and error-prone due to variation of individual taxonomic expertise of the analysts. Novel genomic tools can overcome many of the aforesaid problems and could complement or even replace traditional bioassessment. Yet, a plethora of approaches are independently developed in different institutions, thereby hampering any concerted routine application. The goal of this Action is to nucleate a group of researchers across disciplines with the task to identify gold-standard genomic tools and novel eco-genomic indices for routine application for biodiversity assessments of European water bodies. Furthermore, DNAqua-Net will provide a platform for training of the next generation of European researchers preparing them for the new technologies. Jointly with water managers, politicians and other stakeholders, the group will develop a conceptual framework for the standard application of eco-genomic tools as part of legally binding assessments.

DARKEST: Subterranean estuaries extend inland into coastal aquifers inhabited by a surprising diversity of subterranean animals with peculiar ecological and evolutionary features. How complex ecosystems thrive in this globally distributed habitat in different hydrological and geological settings is poorly understood. This study aims to integrate a novel global database of subterranean fauna with existing geochemical data and high-resolution hydrogeology maps of the world's aquifers, using modern statistical and modelling methods, to achieve an integrated understanding of the drivers of biodiversity in coastal aquifers and their response to global environmental change. Indeed, coastal aquifers connect the world's oceanic and hydrologic ecosystems and provide water source for more than one billion people in coastal regions, but these habitats are among those most prone to the long-term effects of climate change and human population growth. Therefore, expected outcomes of the study will contribute to the increasing efforts to discover, describe, and sustain groundwater-dependent ecosystems and to identify biological communities that could serve as indicators of the health of groundwater resources. To achieve these goals, a holistic approach is proposed that bridges scientific disciplines across ecology and geosciences.

The goal of this project is to use the animal communities inhabiting anchialine environments as a model to investigate evolutionary patterns and processes in island-like marine habitats. Anchialine environments represent world-wide distributed land-locked water bodies with marine origin. They are comparable to islands for terrestrial habitats as they encompass young, discrete habitats with comparable ecological conditions to the sea, thus providing independent replicates of comparable evolutionary processes. All anchialine habitats previously investigated harbor high endemism, disharmonic communities, species with unique set of troglomorphic features, and old animal lineages interpreted as living fossils. In the four research parts of this project, we will test each of these observations and the processes related to them by analyzing large data sets with both macroecological and phylogenetic methods and a broad theoretical perspective from the field of evolutionary ecology, comparative evolution and island biogeography. This will facilitate to link the ecological and evolutionary processes observed in these habitats (easy to isolate and test due to the discrete and young nature of anchialine habitats) with those affecting oceanic ecosystems, providing a tool for a deeper understanding of the marine biota. Whereas similar approaches are well characterized in terrestrial environments (e.g. island), they are missing in the ocean, obscuring our understanding of the processes occurring there.