Abstract Studies considering the functional traits of organisms, populations, and communities functional indices increase the understanding of many factors on ecosystem functioning. Here, we analyze the predation effect (by fish) on zooplankton functional diversity and the effects of biomass and density of periphytic algae on zooplankton feeding type trait and body size. We expect that intense predation by fish on zooplankton leads to higher values of zooplankton functional diversity and that food resource will be positively related to the abundance of zooplankton trait and body size. For that, microcosms were established (T1- fish-absence, and T2- fish-presence, both with periphytic algae as food). We observed that fish presence decreased zooplankton functional diversity through modifications in the availability of nutrients and algae, through the middle-out effect. We also observed that body size had a negative relationship with the food resource, reaffirming that high food availability in subtropical lakes is linked to small-bodied zooplankton. The raptorial copepods covariate positively with the periphytic algae, which was an alternative food resource and, in this case, the main form of carbon input into the system. In this study, omnivorous fish reduced zooplankton functional traits, which can alter the energy stock and energy flow in aquatic ecosystems.

The linear sigma model at finite baryonic density with a massive vector field is investigated considering that all the bosonic fields develop non zero expected classical values, eventually associated with condensates and corresponding to dynamical symmetry breakings which might occur in the QCD phase diagram. A modified equation for the classical vector field is proposed with its respective solution. Some in medium properties of the model (mainly masses) are investigated within reasonable prescriptions. In particular the behavior of the in medium pion and sigma masses and a particular way of calculating in medium coupling to baryons is investigated. A symmetry radius for finite baryonic densities is proposed and calculated in different ways in terms of the other variables of the model and these different ways of calculating it agree quite well. However, assuming that the pion and sigma masses go to zero close to the restoration of chiral symmetry a too high value for the critical density is obtained rhoc <FONT FACE=Symbol>@</FONT> 4.3 rho0.

The relevance of the pion mass, provenient from a term which explicitely breaks chiral symmetry in the Lagrangian, for nucleon magnetic moment in the frame work of the Skyrme model in two different versions: the usual one model and a modified one which includes a coupling to a light scalar meson field, the sigma s(<img id="_x0000_i1026" src="../../img/revistas/bjp/v34n1a/a08img11.gif" align=absmiddle> 500 - 600 MeV). Results are compared to other calculations. Our main motivation comes from usual extrapolations for values of low energy QCD observables obtained in lattices with large values of pion/quark masses toward realistic value of m p which do not allow it. We do a comparison with results from the Cloudy Bag Model and a chiral hadronic model from chiral perturbation theory. There are several resulting extrapolations from the region of large pion mass to the realistic value depending on the considered model for low energy QCD.