Érica Caroline Becker

The South Atlantic Ocean (SAO) is an under‐sampled ocean where the influence of environmental drivers on copepod body size is poorly understood. This study investigated the body size distribution of copepods from 13°S to 64°S to test Bergmann's rule, which predicts the occurrence of smaller organisms in warmer areas. We hypothesized that additional...

Functional traits, short life cycles, and the pivotal role in the ocean make copepod diversity a solid foundation for assessing the effect of global changes in marine food webs and ecosystem functioning. Climate change and extreme events, particularly El Niño, can affect coastal ecosystems. The Arvoredo Marine Biological Reserve (MPA), located in h...

The poster presented at the General Assembly of AtlantECO project (GA23, 3-10 october 2023) provides an overview of the current status of imaging systems utilized for plankton survey in the Southern Brazilian Shelf. Through the collaboration and efforts of Projecto AtlantECO, key insights into the advancements, challenges, and opportunities in empl...

Copepods play a central role in the biological carbon pump and the functioning of the global oceans. Their remarkable taxonomic diversity raises questions on the mechanisms enabling species coexistence and the role of this high diversity in community functioning. Copepod diversity can be divided into multiple facets that include a wide array of mor...

Plankton imaging systems supported by automated classification and analysis have improved ecologists' ability to observe aquatic ecosystems. Today, we are on the cusp of reliably tracking plankton populations with a suite of lab‐based and in situ tools, collecting imaging data at unprecedentedly fine spatial and temporal scales. But these data have...

We revisited the Tara Oceans zooplankton collection aiming to enlarge the latitudinal gradient of copepod diversity in the South Atlantic and Southern Ocean, which provided a unique opportunity to access a large variety of ecosystems, from tropical to polar waters, identifying copepods to the species level using morphological taxonomy. The sampling...

There is a growing consensus for assessing the multifaceted marine biodiversity by analyzing morphological taxonomy and biological traits to link the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning relationships (BEF) to environmental variability. We applied taxonomic and functional diversity indices to relate copepod biodiversity with ecosystem functioning...

Traditional taxonomy allow us to identify and quantify functional traits of copepods from individual images to understand the diversity and size distribution of copepods across different biogeographic regions in South Atlantic.

This part of my PhD research deals with pelagic ecosystem of the South Atlantic Ocean, I seek to gather the broad picture of the general patterns and their mechanisms shaping copepod size distribution as an indicator of community structure and functioning, as well as the effect of temperature in the large latitudinal gradient.

A comunidade mesozooplanctônica foi analisada em relação à estrutura de tamanho do fitoplâncton, às massas d’ água e aos processos oceanográficos da plataforma continental de Santa Catarina. Arrastos verticais de zooplâncton (200 μm), amostras de água para nutrientes, clorofila e quantificação do fitoplâncton, registros de temperatura, salinidade e...

A distribuição do plâncton marinho é caracterizada pela variação espacial da densidade populacional. O conhecimento dos processos físicos e biológicos relacionados à dinâmica costeira pode ser evidenciado através de ambientes enriquecidos que propiciam o aumento da produtividade primária nas proximidades de ilhas. O efeito de massa pode ser interpr...