Abstract Excess nutrientsfrom fertiliser application, pollution discharge and water regulations outflow through rivers from lands to oceans, seriously impact coastal ecosystems. Terrestrial runoff of waters polluted with nutrients (primarily nitrogen [N] phosphorus [P] compounds) point source/s, such as sewage treatment plant (STP) discharges, diffuse sourcesvia river losses, are having devasta...

Seedlings of co-occurring species vary in their response to resource availability and this has implications for the conservation and management of forests. Differential shade-tolerance is thought to influence seedling performance in mixed Nothofagus betuloides-Nothofagus pumilio forests of Patagonia. However, these species also vary in their soil nutrient requirements. To determine the effects ...

1. Environmental heterogeneity created by prescribed burning provided the context for testing whether the distribution of an oak specialist (the lace bug, Corythuca arcuata ) could be explained by stoichiometric mismatches between herbivore and host plant composition. 2. Field observations showed that lace bug density was seven-fold higher in frequently burned than in unburned units. 3. Lace bu...

1. The biochemical composition of primary food resources may affect secondary production, growth, reproduction and other physiological responses in consumers and may be an important driver of food-web dynamics. Changes in land use, riparian clearing and non-point nutrient inputs to streams have the potential to alter the biochemical composition of periphyton, and characterising this relationshi...

An 11-year competition experiment among combinations of six prairie perennial plant species showed that resource competition theory generally predicted the long-term outcome of competition. We grew each species in replicated monocultures to determine its requirements for soil nitrate (R*) and light (I*). In six pairwise combinations, the species with the lower R* and I* excluded its competitor,...

We investigate the effects of algal cell size on the competition for nutrients and light in an incompletely mixed water column, employing a spatially explicit variable internal stores approach and previously published allometric scaling relationships for modeling phytoplankton growth. We analyze the interplay between the size-dependent vertical assimilation and uptake profiles and the role of e...

Volcanic eruptions that shape the earth’s surface can have major effect on ecosystems and, as natural experiments, can yield insights into ecological dynamics. On 04 June 2011, a mega-eruption in the Puyehue volcanic complex (Chile) discharged massive amounts of ash and pumice. Using long-term data from five North Andean Patagonian lakes (Espejo, Correntoso, Nahuel Huapi, Gutiérrez, and Mascard...

Microalgae are considered promising sources of raw material for biodiesel production. The cultivation of microalgae for obtaining biomass depends on several factors such as the amount of available nutrients, CO2, water, light, temperature and pH. The literature suggests the use of alternative nutrients for reducing the environmental impacts of biodiesel production from microalgae. This study ai...