The boundary between mud flat and coastal wetland ecosystems is highly dynamic environment. We introduce a simple conceptual model for this ecosystem, which demonstrates that the interaction between tidal flooding and habitat elevation is able to produce an ecotone with similar characteristics to that observed in empirical studies. In particular, the transition from mud flat to vegetated state is locally abrupt, occurring at a critical threshold elevation, but, on broader spatial scales can occur over a range of elevations determined by the variability in high tide water levels. Additionally, the model shows the potential for regime shifts.
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a highly diverse mixture of compounds, accounting for one of the world's largest active carbon pools. The surprising recalcitrance of some DOM compounds to bacterial degradation has recently been associated with its …
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba)—one of the most abundant animal species on Earth—exhibits a five to six year population cycle, with oscillations in biomass exceeding one order of magnitude. Previous studies have postulated that the krill cycle is …
Although research on human-mediated exchanges of species has substantially intensified during the last centuries, we know surprisingly little about temporal dynamics of alien species accumulations across regions and taxa. Using a novel database of …
Brownian particles interacting via repulsive soft-core potentials can spontaneously aggregate, despite repelling each other, and form periodic crystals of particle clusters. We study this phenomenon in low-dimensional situations (one and two …
Two ecological frameworks have been used to explain multitrophic interactions, but rarely in combination: (i) ecological stoichiometry (ES), explaining consumption rates in response to consumers' demand and prey's nutrient content; and (ii) metabolic …
Species within a habitat are not uniformly distributed. However this aspect of community structure, which is fundamental to many conservation activities, is neglected in the majority of models of food web assembly. To address this issue, we introduce …
The interplay of population dynamics and evolution within ecological communities has been of long-standing interest for ecologists and can give rise to evolutionary cycles, e.g. taxon cycles. Evolutionary cycling was intensely studied in small …
There is still considerable debate about which mechanisms drive the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF). Although most scientists agree on the existence of two underlying mechanisms, complementarity and selection, …
Many empirical food webs contain multiple resources, which can lead to the emergence of sub-communities—partitions—in a food web that are weakly connected with each other. These partitions interact and affect the complete food web. However, the fact …