SIMONA SPORTA CAPUTI

Dottoressa di ricerca

ciclo: XXXIII



Titolo della tesi: Variation in the structure of food webs related to climate change and anthropogenic disturbance

Climate change and anthropogenic pressure are deeply altering the global environments dramatically threating the persistence of biodiversity and ecosystems processes including the primary production, matter cycling and energy flux. However, the still scarce knowledge on the biodiversity organization in the food web structure, and not only on the species number, limits our power to predict the effects of environmental change and the possible response mechanism of biological community to environmental variations. This work aims to understand the mechanism underlying the community structure and its stability under different natural or anthropogenic pressures conditions. The food web structure and its metrics, the main carbon pathways and the taxa that play a key role in the community organisation in aquatic ecosystems were identified and quantified. The extensive field sampling and stable isotope analysis of each individual collected in the study ecosystems allowed to reconstruct and compare highly detailed food webs and trophic niche at both spatio-temporal and hierarchical scale (from individuals to community). In addition, the new consideration of trophic specie based on restricted interval of two elements isotopic signals, proved to be an efficient approach to overcome the current limits of the classical food web reconstruction, that occur when the biodiversity and the possible trophic interactions between species within an ecosystem are particularly complex. Our results highlight that modifications in the availability and quality of basal resources alters the interactions among organisms at different hierarchal scale with cascade effects on the entire food web structure, complexity, and stability. In accordance with optimal foraging theory, the availability of food sources has imposed change of link density already starting from single individuals with important variation of recurring patterns in the food web structure. Specifically, the consumers diet breadth decreased when the per capita availability and quality of resources increase. This, in turn, led to a relatively simpler food web characterized by lower link density affects the stability of the community against biodiversity loss and biological invasions. Our results are of particular relevance for ecology and for methodology, providing the key information for understanding the mechanisms that structure the community and its possible response to the different disturbance conditions. The results support that the expected changes in the habitat physical conditions could be reflected in food web architecture and organisms with greater generalism and trophic plasticity may be able to persist after a disturb playing a key role in community stability. The structure and function of food webs could be an efficient measure to predict and mitigate the effect of induced both physical and biological change on natural communities, both in the short and medium-long term (including climate change).

Produzione scientifica

  • 11573/1097201 - 2018 - Time- and depth-wise trophic niche shifts in Antarctic benthos (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CALIZZA, EDOARDO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1679535 - 2023 - Effects of sea-ice persistence on the diet of Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) chicks and the trophic differences between chicks and adults in the Ross Sea, Antarctica (01a Articolo in rivista)
    MACCAPAN, DEBORAH; CAREDDU, GIULIO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1122265 - 2018 - The role of alien fish (the centrarchid Micropterus salmoides) in lake food webs highlighted by stable isotope analysis (01a Articolo in rivista)
    COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA; CARLINO, PASQUALE; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; CICALA, DAVIDE; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; FIORENTINO, FEDERICO; ROSSI, LORETO
  • 11573/1317841 - 2019 - Spatial variation in the feeding strategies of Mediterranean fish. Flatfish and mullet in the Gulf of Gaeta (Italy) (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CICALA, DAVIDE; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; FIORENTINO, FEDERICO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1317839 - 2019 - Antarctic food web architecture under varying dynamics of sea ice cover (01a Articolo in rivista)
    ROSSI, LORETO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; OLIVERIO, MARCO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1340744 - 2019 - Species richness and vulnerability to disturbance propagation in real food webs (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CALIZZA, EDOARDO; ROSSI, LORETO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1691337 - 2023 - Biological invasions in fresh waters. Micropterus salmoides, an American fish conquering the world (01a Articolo in rivista)
    COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA; KABALA, JERZY PIOTR; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; VENTURA, MATTEO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; ROSSI, LORETO
  • 11573/1691327 - 2023 - When climate change and overexploitation meet in volcanic lakes. The lesson from lake Bracciano, Rome’s strategic reservoir (01a Articolo in rivista)
    VENTURA, MATTEO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1409714 - 2020 - Isotopic biomonitoring of N pollution in rivers embedded in complex human landscapes (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CALIZZA, EDOARDO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; FIORENTINO, FEDERICO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1409721 - 2020 - Changing isotopic food webs of two economically important fish in mediterranean coastal lakes with different trophic status (01a Articolo in rivista)
    SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; CAREDDU, GIULIO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; FIORENTINO, FEDERICO; MACCAPAN, DEBORAH; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1453410 - 2020 - New epilithic δ15N-based analytical protocol for classifying Nitrogen impact in Lake Bracciano (01a Articolo in rivista)
    FIORENTINO, FEDERICO; JONA LASINIO, GIOVANNA; CAREDDU, GIULIO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; ROSSI, LORETO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1453402 - 2020 - Diet composition of the Italian crested newt (Triturus carnifex) in structurally different artificial ponds based on stomach contents and stable isotope analyses (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CAREDDU, GIULIO; ROMANO, ANTONIO; ROSSI, LORETO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1477109 - 2020 - Seasonal food web dynamics in the Antarctic benthos of Tethys Bay (Ross Sea). Implications for biodiversity persistence under different seasonal sea-ice coverage (01a Articolo in rivista)
    SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; CAREDDU, GIULIO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; FIORENTINO, FEDERICO; MACCAPAN, DEBORAH; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1531151 - 2021 - Variation in the structure of food webs related to climate change and antropogenic disturbance (07a Tesi di Dottorato)
    SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA
  • 11573/1538434 - 2021 - A novel approach to quantifying trophic interaction strengths and impact of invasive species in food webs (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CALIZZA, EDOARDO; ROSSI, LORETO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1604751 - 2022 - Increasing nutrient inputs over the last 500 years in an Italian low-impacted seagrass meadow (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CAREDDU, GIULIO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; ROSSI, LORETO; BELLUSCIO, ANDREA; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1574829 - 2021 - Spatial and temporal diet variability of Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae) and Emperor (Aptenodytes forsteri) Penguin. A multi tissue stable isotope analysis (01a Articolo in rivista)
    JAFARI, VAHIDEH; MACCAPAN, DEBORAH; CAREDDU, GIULIO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1574831 - 2021 - Trace elements and stable isotopes in penguin chicks and eggs. A baseline for monitoring the Ross Sea MPA and trophic transfer studies (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CALIZZA, EDOARDO; ROSSI, LORETO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1607151 - 2022 - Trophic attractiveness for soil fauna of residues of Bt and near-isogenic maize. A C and N stable isotope-based study (01a Articolo in rivista)
    SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; ROSSI, LORETO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1290051 - 2019 - Horizontal and vertical food web structure drives trace element trophic transfer in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CALIZZA, EDOARDO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; MAZZOLA, PIETRO ALBERICO CARLO; ROSSI, LORETO; VIZZINI, MARTA ANNA STELLA
  • 11573/1662600 - 2022 - The feeding behaviour of gall midge larvae and its implications for biocontrol of the giant reed. Insights from stable isotope analysis (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CAREDDU, GIULIO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; CALIZZA, EDOARDO; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA
  • 11573/1607165 - 2022 - Climate‐related drivers of nutrient inputs and food web structure in shallow Arctic lake ecosystems (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CALIZZA, EDOARDO; PASQUALI, VITTORIO; CAREDDU, GIULIO; SPORTA CAPUTI, SIMONA; MACCAPAN, DEBORAH; ROSSI, LORETO; COSTANTINI, MARIA LETIZIA

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