Anciens collaborateurs

Julio Alegre Stelzer

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M. Julio Alegre Stelzer

Ancien doctorant


I am enrolled in the Ph.D. project ”Determination of critical thresholds for ecosystem resilience from perturbation experiments”, part of MANTEL: a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action European Joint Doctorate Innovative Training Network. Mantel is an EU-2020 project including 8 beneficiaries, 5 degree-awarding partners, and 9 external agencies from 9 different European countries.

My research consists of deepening the understanding towards loss of resilience in lentic systems. Loss of resilience has been proved to show “early warning signals” that could be used for preventive management of water bodies, avoiding ecosystem shifts and deterioration of ecosystem services. Nevertheless, very few empirical data or ecological-evolutionary large scales experiments have been done so far into the topic. We will use experimental manipulation of the biotic and abiotic matrix (in different scales from microcosms to whole-lake manipulation) to determine empirical early warning signals, tipping-points, thresholds for regime shifts and levels of resilience in lakes and reservoirs. For that, structures as LakeLab and Limnotrons will be primarily used for upscaling guidance. Resilience and critical slowing down have rarely been studied at the whole ecosystem level. While from one side it demands close contact between researchers and lake/reservoir managers, this approach produces a powerful management tool in a changing world.

I have previously done my bachelor in Biological Sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - BR; Technical specialization in Hydrology and Hydraulics on the Institute of Hydraulics Research - BR; double master in Transnational Ecosystem-Based Water Management at the University Duisburg-Essen - DE & Radboud University of Nijmegen - NL and have developed works related to pollutant ecology and ecological risk assessment for the Finnish (SYKE) and Brazilian (FEPAM) Environmental Protection Agencies.


Anciens collaborateurs