BACKGROUND Theory predicts strong bottom-up control in detritus-based food webs, yet field experiments with detritus-based terrestrial systems have uncovered contradictory evidence regarding the strength and pervasiveness of bottom-up control processes. Two factors likely leading to contradictory results are experiment duration, which influences exposure to temporal variation in abiotic factors...

Nutrient enrichment of detritus-based streams increases detrital resource quality for consumers and stimulates breakdown rates of particulate organic carbon (C). The relative importance of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (N) vs. phosphorus (P) for detrital quality and their effects on microbial- vs. detritivore-mediated detrital breakdown are poorly understood. We tested effects of experimental N ...

Many species of the orb-web spider genus Cyclosa often adorn their webs with decorations of prey remains, egg sacs and/or plant detritus, termed ;detritus decorations'. These detritus decorations have been hypothesised to camouflage the spider from predators or prey and thus reduce predation risk or increase foraging success. In the present study, we tested these two alternative hypotheses simu...

[1] Effects of sediment resuspension-induced benthic detrital flux on the heterotrophic part of the microbial food web in Lake Michigan were examined using a threedimensional (3-D) coupled biological and physical model. The model was driven by the realistic meteorological forcing observed in March 1999. Wind-induced surface wave dynamics were incorporated into the physical model to generate the...

[1] The impact of a reflective, recurrent coastal resuspension plume on the lower trophic food web system in Lake Michigan was examined using a 3-D coupled physical and biological model. Numerical experiments were conducted for the March 1998 and 1999 plume events. The comparison between modeling results of these 2 years shows that the spatial distributions of the biological fields (i.e., phosp...

Sediment infauna and sedimentary structures within the shallow ( S 15 m depth) inshore of the central Great Barrier Reef lagoon were examined seasonally for 1 yr to relate benthic fauna1 abundance, community composition and biogenic activity to outwelling of mangrove detritus and natural physical disturbance. Standing amounts of mangrove litter exceeded 4000 g dry weight (DW) m'2 in a semi-encl...

Detrital subsidies from marine macrophytes are prevalent in temperate estuaries, and their role in structuring benthic macrofaunal communities is well documented, but the resulting impact on ecosystem function is not understood. We conducted a field experiment to test the effects of detrital decay on soft-sediment primary production, community metabolism and nutrient regeneration (measures of e...

Tropical seagrass beds are productive coastal ecosystems that important blue carbon sinks and crucial habitats feeding grounds for consumers at high trophic levels. To understand how energy sustains the ecosystem from production, we constructed an Ecopath model to reveal possible pathways of flow in tropical around Dongsha Island, South China Sea. The indicates were developing but well-structur...

An ecosystem made of nutrients, plants, detritus and dissolved oxygen is presented. Its equilibria are established. Sufficient conditions for the existence of the coexistence equilibrium are derived and its feasibility is discussed in every detail.