Experimentação e replicabilidade em ecologia aquática
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2020-03-31
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Universidade Federal de Goiás
Resumo
Experimentation in ecology has been widely addressed by researchers due to its ability to
control environmental and biological effects of interest, and thus obtain more robust scientific
evidence. However, in recent years there has been a growing debate about the
“reproducibility crisis” in science. The main issue in the lack of reproducibility of the results is
the failure of the scientific theory validation process that occurs through the accumulation of
evidence by Works replicated by several researchers. Considering the continental aquatic
ecosystems, for example, in the last decades, several experiments have sought to explain the
consequences generated by changes in the composition and wealth of communities on
ecosystem functions and services. Thus, within the context of experimental replication in
ecology of continental aquatic environments, the present study had as objectives, divided into
three chapters: (i) to evaluate experimental studies in aquatic ecology through a systematic
review; (ii) discuss the replicability and reproducibility of the most prominent experiments in
aquatic ecology and (iii) quantify the global effect of biodiversity on the functioning of
continental aquatic ecosystems through a meta-analysis. In general, the themes addressed
experimentally in aquatic ecology are quite diverse and dynamic over time. In the first
decades there was an increase in the number of new topics developed through experiments.
In recent decades, researchers have sought to focus mainly on replicating the different
dimensions of ecological questions that were initially tested. It is important to note, however,
that the confirmation or not of the original results of the experiments in aquatic ecology
occurs at different levels of secondary replication. Exact replications, for example, do not
exist, since there is always, to some degree, heterogeneity between studies. On the other
hand, in general, the original questions replicated can be generalized to other organisms and
ecosystems. However, at the same time it is necessary caution when interpreting
generalizations in nature, due to the different conditions of heterogeneity that the
experiments are manipulated. Although it is known that biodiversity improves the functioning
of ecosystems, due to several experimental evidences that corroborate this premise, given the
different experimental conditions that a given hypothesis test of the relationship between
biodiversity and ecosystem functioning may occur, the effect of this relationship may be
overestimated or underestimated when jointly comparing individual results in a meta analytical synthesis. In general terms, the ecological issues addressed in the experiments are
replicated at different levels, considering different conceptual and methodological approaches
to reproduce similar results and search for ecological patterns.
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SANTOS, L. P. Experimentação e replicabilidade em ecologia aquática. 2020. 109 f. Tese (Doutorado em Ecologia e Evolução) - Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, 2020.