$ : Equal contribution 8. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was. ABSTRACT: 9 Plant strategies for nutrient acquisition and recycling are key components of ecosystem 10 functioning. How the evolution of such strategies modifies ecosystem functioning and 11 services is still not...

A fundamental question in nutritional biology is how distributed systems maintain an optimal supply of multiple nutrients essential for life and reproduction. In the case of animals, the nutritional requirements of the cells within the body are coordinated by the brain in neural and chemical dialogue with sensory systems and peripheral organs. At the level of an insect society, the requirements...

Nutrient availability regulates the responses of high-latitude ecosystems to climate change but nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur biogeochemistry, especially, phosphorus and sulfur cycles, are poorly understood in Alpine tundra ecosystem. This study examines the cycling of nutrients in a 302-year-old Alpine tundra ecosystem in which litter has accumulated through compartment methods. Samples of t...

We describe the design, characterization, and use of "programmable", sterile growth environments for individual (or small sets of) plants. The specific relative humidities and nutrient availability experienced by the plant is established (RH between 15% and 95%; nutrient concentration as desired) during the setup of the growth environment, which takes about 5 minutes and <1$ in disposable cost....

Bioremediation is being increasingly seen as an effective, environmentally benign treatment for shorelines contaminated as a result of marine oil spills. Despite a relatively long history of research on oil-spill bioremediation, it remains an essentially empirical technology and many of the factors that control bioremediation have yet to be adequately understood. Nutrient amendment is a widely ...

The elemental ratios of marine phytoplankton emerge from complex interactions between the biotic and abiotic components of the ocean, and reflect the plastic response of individuals to changes in their environment. The stoichiometry of phytoplankton is, thus, dynamic and dependent on the physiological state of the cell. We present a theoretical model for the dynamics of the carbon, nitrogen and...

In Burmese pythons fasting and feeding cause dramatic regulation of gastric acid production and intestinal nutrient uptake. Predictably, other components of their gastrointestinal tract are similarly regulated with each meal. We therefore assessed the matched regulation of gastrointestinal performance by comparing the postprandial activities and capacities of gastric (pepsin), pancreatic (amyla...

Environmental exposures to essential and toxic elements may alter health trajectories, depending on the timing, intensity, and mixture of exposures. In epidemiologic studies, these factors are typically analyzed as a function of elemental concentrations in biological matrices measured at one or more points in time. Such an approach, however, fails to account for the temporal cyclicity in the me...

In ecology, strategy schemes based on propositions about the selection of plant attributes are common, but quantification of such schemes in relation to nutrient and water supply is lacking. Through structural equation modeling, we tested whether plant strategies related to nutrient and water/oxygen supply are reflected in a coordination of traits in natural communities. Structural equation mod...

The TOR protein kinase functions in two distinct complexes, TOR complex 1 (TORC1) and 2 (TORC2). TORC1 is required for growth in response to growth factors, nutrients and the cellular energy state; TORC2 regulates AKT signaling, which can modulate cytoskeletal polarization. In its ecological niche, Dictyostelium engulf bacteria and yeast for nutrient capture. Despite the essential role of TORC1...