Stefan A. Schnitzer* and Frans Bongers University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Department of Biological Sciences, PO Box 413, 53201, USA Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama Wageningen University, Centre for Ecosystem Studies, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands *Correspondence: E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Tropical...

The response of coastal phytoplankton community to increased nutrient concentrations was examined over a period of 20 days in the summer period on the NE Mediterranean coast. Two different nutrient enrichments were performed. The enrichment treatments received N, P and Si at a ratio of 15 N: 5 Si: 1 P. Two different doses of nutrients (1x and 2x) were applied. The abundance and biomass of the p...

The study intended to establish how the dynamics of earthworms (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) changes in soil (abundance, biomass), under conditions of mineral fertilization with nitrogen and phosphorous in four different doses, in a 33-year experimental placement in the west of Romania, in wheat-soybean-maize-barley rotation. The soil indices taken into study were: pH, humus, total nitrogen, phosp...

The finding that regular spatial patterns can emerge in nature from local interactions between organisms has prompted a search for the ecological importance of these patterns. Theoretical models have predicted that patterning may have positive emergent effects on fundamental ecosystem functions, such as productivity. We provide empirical support for this prediction. In dryland ecosystems, termi...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are used to protect species, communities, and their associated habitats, among other goals. Measuring MPA efficacy can be challenging, however, particularly when considering responses at the community level. We gathered 36 abundance and 14 biomass data sets on fish assemblages and used meta-analysis to evaluate the ability of 22 distinct community diversity metrics...

BACKGROUND Increasingly, underwater visual censuses (UVC) are used to assess fish populations. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of protected areas for increasing fish abundance or provided insight into the natural abundance and structure of reef fish communities in remote areas. Recently, high apex predator densities (>100,000 individuals x km(-2)) and biomasses (>4 tonnes x ...

Tropical forests are experiencing large-scale structural changes, the most apparent of which may be the increase in liana (woody vine) abundance and biomass. Lianas permeate most lowland tropical forests, where they can have a huge effect on tree diversity, recruitment, growth and survival, which, in turn, can alter tree community composition, carbon storage and carbon, nutrient and water fluxe...

A study was conducted to assess the leading physical and biological processes influencing the spatial patterns of tropical mesozooplankton in a coral reef lagoon in Guadeloupe (French West Indies, Caribbean Sea), considering two size classes (190–600 μm and > 600 μm). The spatial variability of mesozooplankton biomass and abundance was examined along a transect, and related to environmental het...

An important but difficult problem in ecological studies is estimating species richness, i.e., the number of species in an assemblage based on an incomplete survey (Colwell and Coddington 1994). The same problem also arises from various other scientific fields (Bunge and Fitzpatrick 1993). In the survey, individuals are selected from the species assemblage and their species identities are recog...