Ana Rita Guillot Caldas
stipendiat
Institutt for biologi
Stilling: stipendiat
Telefon: 55 95 90 00
Mobiltelefon: na
E-post: Rita.Guillot@bio.uib.no
Besøksadresse: Thormøhlensgt. 53 A/B
Comparative physiology of estuarine species
Her PhD project will use a common-garden experimental approach to investigate latitudinal, climate, temperature and salinity effects on growth and physiology of estuarine species such as juvenile fish (e.g. Pleuronectes platessa, Platichthys flesus, Pomatoschistus spp.), brown shrimp, or shore crabs. Differences between populations found at different latitudes will be evaluated by combined rearing of individuals from different sources (Norway, The Netherlands and Portugal) under different temperature and salinity conditions. These experiments will enable to determine whether latitudinal counter gradient compensation occurs in growth and general physiological performance. Some field investigations will be used to support laboratory observations. Field surveys will further provide information on reproduction and growth periods under natural environment which will be essential to confirm adaptation to the length of the growing season. Additionally, by using a second generation, non-genetic irreversible adaptation can be evaluated, as
well as a possible genetic basis of the observed latitudinal trends. Finally, morphometrics and meristics of estuarine species will be studied for each population source separately in order to evaluate possible latitudinal trends which could be related to environmental conditions.
This PhD is a part of the project "Managing effects of global climate on estuarine biodiversity and production", funded by the EEA grants.
Bachelor in Biology, branch "Applied Animal Biology", Faculty of Sciences of Porto University