Seminar of Florian Altermatt

The Anthropocene’s cascading effects on interspecific interactions, resource fluxes, and ecosystem level dynamics: an amphipod story

The Anthropocene is having unprecedented negative impacts on the earth and all ecosystems. Major global boundaries are crossed, such as loss of biodiversity, changes in theN-cycle, and climate change. It also includes the spread of invasive species and high level of chemical pollution. Effects on ecosystems and individual species are massive and need a multifaceted understanding. Yet, we often still use a relatively narrow focuswhen studying ecological systems and their response to environmental change. In my talk I will showcase how a pluralistic perspective and integrated understanding of amphipods as keystone species in freshwater systems may give us novel, and partially surprising,understanding of how ecological systems assemble, function, and disassemble. This includes a thorough knowledge of the species’ natural history and its integration with quantitative population and community ecology, covering extensive spatial, temporal andorganismal scales.