Université de Fribourg

DNA metabarcoding reveals changes in the contents of carnivorous plants along an elevation gradient

Littlefair, Joanne E. ; Zander, Axel ; Sena Costa, Clara de ; Clare, Elizabeth L.

In: Molecular Ecology, 2019, vol. 28, no. 2, p. 281–292

Resource variation along abiotic gradients influences subsequent trophic interactions and these effects can be transmitted through entire food webs. Interactions along abiotic gradients can provide clues as to how organisms will face changing environmental conditions, such as future range shifts. However, it is challenging to find replicated systems to study these effects. Phytotelmata, such...

Université de Fribourg

Interactions of "Sarracenia purpurea" and its inquilines : comparing Europe and North America

Zander, Axel ; Bersier, Louis-Félix (Dir.)

Thèse de doctorat : Université de Fribourg, 2016 ; no. 1984.

Sarracenia purpurea is a carnivorous pitcher plant from North America and a model system for aquatic communities. After the pitchers fill up with rainwater, a food web forms in these detritus-fueled ecosystems ranging from bacteria to insect larvae, including the top predator Wyeomyia smithii. Two weeks after opening this food webs consists only of a handful of small and fast dispersing species...

Université de Fribourg

Effects of temperature variability on community structure in a natural microbial food web

Zander, Axel ; Bersier, Louis-Félix ; Gray, Sarah M.

In: Global Change Biology, 2017, vol. 23, no. 1, p. 56–67

Climate change research has demonstrated that changing temperatures will have an effect on community-level dynamics by altering species survival rates, shifting species distributions, and ultimately, creating mismatches in community interactions. However, most of this work has focused on increasing temperature, and still little is known about how the variation in temperature extremes will...

Université de Fribourg

Top predators affect the composition of naive protist communities, but only in their early-successional stage

Zander, Axel ; Gravel, Dominique ; Bersier, Louis-Félix ; Gray, Sarah M.

In: Oecologia, 2016, vol. 180, no. 2, p. 519–528

Introduced top predators have the potential to disrupt community dynamics when prey species are naive to predation. The impact of introduced predators may also vary depending on the stage of community development. Early-succession communities are likely to have small-bodied and fast-growing species, but are not necessarily good at defending against predators. In contrast, late-succession...