Fluctuations in resource availability are a key factor controlling the susceptibility of an environment to invasion by non-indigenous species. Increases in the availability of resources will facilitate the invasion of habitats and assemblages. In this study, we tested experimentally the combined effects of intensity and temporal variability of nutrient supply on the invasion of a low intertidal...

We study a system of two integrodifferential equations which models the evolution of a biotic species feeding on an abiotic resource. We also consider nutrient recycling with time delay. By H o p f bifurcation theory we prove the existence of stable oscillations for a range of values of the input of nutrients.

We show that spatial self-organization allows vegetation to survive greater resource limitation. Isolated vegetation patches observed in nutrient-poor territories of South America and West Africa are interpreted as localized structures arising from the bistability between the bare state and the patchy vegetation state.

Assembly history, including the order in which species arrive into a community, can infl uence long-term community structure; however we know less about how timing of species arrival may alter assembly especially under varying resource conditions. To explore how the timing of species arrival interacts with resource availability to alter community assembly, we constructed experimental plant comm...

The relative roles of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) and saprotrophic communities in controlling the decomposition of soil organic matter remain unclear. We tested the hypothesis that ECM community structure and activity influences the breakdown of nutrient-rich biopolymers in soils, while saprotrophic communities primarily regulate the breakdown of carbon-rich biopolymers. To test this hypothesis, we u...

Macrofauna invertebrates of forest floors provide important functions in the decomposition process of soil organic matter, which is affected by the nutrient stoichiometry of the leaf litter. Climate change effects on forest ecosystems include warming and decreasing litter quality (e.g. higher C : nutrient ratios) induced by higher atmospheric CO(2) concentrations. While litter-bag experiments u...

Recent calls for the development of ecosystem-based fisheries management compel the development of resource management tools and linkages between existing fisheries management tools and other resource tools to enable assessment and management of multiple impacts on fisheries resources. In this paper, we describe the use of the Chesapeake Bay Fisheries Ecosystem Model (CBFEM), developed using th...

Temperature and nutrients are key factors affecting the growth, cell size, and physiology of marine phytoplankton. In the ocean, temperature and nutrient availability often co-vary because temperature drives vertical stratification, which further controls nutrient upwelling. This makes it difficult to disentangle the effects of temperature and nutrients on phytoplankton purely from observationa...

Human activities in the watersheds of the tributaries of Pamlico Sound (PS) in North Carolina have resulted in increased riverine loading of nutrients. Pamlico Sound is a regionally important aquatic resource, and provides crucial foraging and nursery habitats for Southeast Atlantic fisheries. Changes in phytoplankton community composition that may result from increased frequency and quantity o...

Exploitation of microscale (microm-mm) resource patches by planktonic microorganisms may influence oceanic trophodynamics and nutrient cycling. However, examinations of microbial behavior within patchy microhabitats have been precluded by methodological limitations. We developed a microfluidic device to generate microscale resource patches at environmentally realistic spatiotemporal scales, and...