Testing predictability in phytoplankton communities
How species size, metabolism, and demography affect community assembly and stability

19 Giugno 2026 – Ore 10:30

CNR-ISMed
Via Filippo Parlatore 65
Palermo

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Locandina

Predicting the composition and dynamics of ecological communities is challenging because complexity increases rapidly with species richness. Therefore, trait-based approaches are considered the “holy grail” of ecology but there are still no clear frameworks that show which traits consistently inform on species success in communities and their responses to environmental change. I will present recent work from my lab that uses marine phytoplankton to explicitly test the importance of demography, size and metabolism for predicting community assembly. I will then extend this assessment to show how trait diversity affects different aspects of community stability. Altogether this work shows that demography is a stronger and more consistent predictor of community dynamics than metabolic or size based proxies but also reveal some conditions in which these traits might become more predictive of species – and potentially community – responses.

IL RELATORE. Giulia Ghedini is an ecologist interested in understanding how communities form and function. Her work focuses on marine systems, in particular phytoplankton on which she uses theory-informed experiments to quantify how the interplay between organismal metabolism and species interactions influences community properties. Giulia completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide in 2016, then moved to Monash University as a postdoc where she secured a research fellowship from the Australian Research Council. She started her lab at the Gulbenkian Institute in Lisbon (Portugal) in 2021 where she won an ERC Starting Grant. Last year she relocated to Monash University with an ongoing Lecturer/Group leader position in community ecology.

PROGRAMMA

SALUTI ISTITUZIONALI
Gabriella Corona
Direttrice CNR-ISMed

APERTURA DEI LAVORI
Angela Cuttitta
CNR-ISMed

RELATORE
Giulia Ghedini
School of Biological Science Monash University
Melbourne, Australia

MODERA
Marianna Musco
CNR-ISMed

DIBATTITO FINALE

ORGANIZZATO DA
CNR-ISMed

COMITATO SCIENTIFICO
Marianna Musco (CNR-ISMed)
Vojsava Gjoni (ricercatrice)

COME PARTECIPARE
Il seminario è aperto al pubblico.
È possibile partecipare da remoto, su piattaforma TEAMS
(ID riunione: 387 417 830 507 247 – Passcode: S3cY37iz)

INFO E CONTATTI
Marianna Musco
marianna.musco@ismed.cnr.it
www.ismed.cnr.it