Digital ecosystems continue to evolve, as new external APIs continue to enter into it. Not all new APIs, however, have the same fate: some are successfully connected with existing APIs and spark major changes in the ecosystem, while others are simply ignored. Particularly, some of the components end up playing a major role in shaping the structure of the ecosystem. To systematically explore wha...

P. E. Gribben ([email protected]), Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster, and School of the Environment, Univ. of Technology, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia. – J. E. Byers, School of Biological Sciences, Univ. of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia and Odum School of Ecology, Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. – J. T. Wright, National Centre for Marine Conservatio...

Population sizes and growth rates are two major factors used by ecologists in assessing human impacts on ecosystems and landscapes. However, the numbers of households have been increasing much faster than population sizes. As households are basic socioeconomic units (e.g., in consumption of ecosystem services) and key components of coupled human and natural systems, household proliferation has ...

of challenges. Much of classical ecological theory originates from very simple differential equations in which a single variable represents population densities. Researchers typically analyze the solutions mathematically and then compare them to abundance estimates from field or lab observations. Although highly influential in ecological theory, the models’ aggregated form is particularly diffi...

Altitude is a determining factor of ecosystem properties and processes in mountains. This study investigated the changes in the concentrations of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) and their ratios in four key ecosystem components (forest floor litter, fine roots, soil, and soil microorganisms) along an altitudinal gradient (from 50 m to 950 m a.s.l.) in subtropical China. The results...

This Distributed Graduate Seminar (DGS) aims to synthesize current ecological information on the role that biodiversity in agricultural landscapes (agrobiodiversity) plays in providing ecosystem services. In recent years numerous studies aimed at examining the importance of agroecosystems to the conservation of biodiversity have been published. These studies focus on identifying the types of ag...

It is well recognized that ecological systems generate a spectrum of diverse benefits that are vital to humankind. Sustainable environmental management requires an adequate consideration of ecosystem goods and services. The problem, however, is that many of the ecological and social amenities are not currently incorporated into the decision-making process. A fundamental issue is getting at the ...

This Distributed Graduate Seminar (DGS) aims to synthesize current ecological information on the role that biodiversity in agricultural landscapes (agrobiodiversity) plays in providing ecosystem services. In recent years numerous studies aimed at examining the importance of agroecosystems to the conservation of biodiversity have been published. These studies focus on identifying the types of ag...