A two-dimensional steady-state model of light-driven phytoplankton productivity and biomass in partially mixed estuaries has been developed. Effects of variations in river flow, suspended sediment concentration, phytoplankton sinking, self-shading and growth rates on distributions of phytoplankton biomass and productivity are investigated. Numerical simulation experiments show that biomass and ...

management of nitrogen fertilization in crops is one of the most important components of integrated weed management. a two-year field experiment was conducted to determine the direct effects of wild mustard aboveground biomass and n content of wild mustard on oilseed rape yield. a set of factorial treatments was arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. treatments w...

Loss of biological diversity because of extinction is one of the most pronounced changes to the global environment. For several decades, researchers have tried to understand how changes in biodiversity might impact biomass production by examining how biomass correlates with a number of biodiversity metrics (especially the number of species and functional groups). This body of research has focus...

Small-scale experiments and theory suggest that ecological functions provided by communities become more stable with increased species richness. Whether these patterns manifest at regional spatial scales and within species-rich communities (e.g., coral reefs) is largely unknown. We quantified five biogeochemical processes, and an aggregate measure of multifunctionality, in species-rich coastal ...

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis affects 1% of the world population, and up to 73% of patients present respiratory disorders. In Colombia, there are no studies evaluating the relationship between the presence of pulmonary disorders and rheumatoid arthritis. Objective: To determine the factors associated with respiratory diseases in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Methods: Case-control stu...

In frequently burned ecosystems, many plants persist by repeated resprouting from basal or belowground buds. This strategy requires that plants reach a balance between biomass loss and recovery, which depends on the shape of the relationship between pre- and post-fire size. Previous analyses of this relationship, however, have focused on the size of the largest stem, which ignores the importanc...

Globally, many terrestrial ecosystems are experiencing a rapid loss of biodiversity. Continued improvements in our understanding of interrelationships between plant diversity and soil microbes are critical to address the concern over the consequences of the decline in biodiversity on ecosystem functioning and services. By removing forbs, or grasses, or, to an extreme scenario, both forbs and gr...

Global declines in insects have sparked wide interest among scientists, politicians, and the general public. Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services. Our understanding of the extent and underlying causes of this decline is based on the abundance of single species or taxonomic groups only, rather than chang...

To assess the suitability of Leguminous species in rice intercropping systems, physiological and morphological characteristics of Crotalaria juncea, Cajanus cajan, Mucuna pruriens var. cochinchinensis, Calopogonium mucunoides, Aeschynomene histrix and Stylosanthes hamata were determined in monoculture. C. cajan and S. hamata were selected and intercropped with two upland rice cultivars (WAB56-5...

Woody biomass dynamics are an expression of ecosystem function, yet biomass estimates do not provide information on the spatial distribution of woody vegetation within the vertical vegetation subcanopy. We demonstrate the ability of airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to measure aboveground biomass and subcanopy structure, as an explanatory tool to unravel vegetation dynamics in struct...