mathematical model

Determining selection across heterogeneous landscapes: A perturbation-based method and its application to modeling evolution in space

Spatial structure can decisively influence the way evolutionary processes unfold. To date, several methods have been used to study evolution in spatial systems, including population genetics, quantitative genetics, moment-closure approximations, and …

Non-Redfield, nutrient synergy and flexible internal elemental stoichiometry in a marine bacterium

The stoichiometric constraints of algal growth are well understood, whereas there is less knowledge for heterotrophic bacterioplankton. Growth of the marine bacterium Phaeobacter inhibens DSM 17395, belonging to the globally distributed Roseobacter …

Robustness of metacommunities with omnivory to habitat destruction: disentangling patch fragmentation from patch loss

Habitat destruction, characterized by patch loss and fragmentation, is a major driving force of species extinction, and understanding its mechanisms has become a central issue in biodiversity conservation. Numerous studies have explored the effect of …

Food web persistence in fragmented landscapes

Habitat destruction, characterized by patch loss and fragmentation, is a key driver of biodiversity loss. There has been some progress in the theory of spatial food webs; however, to date, practically nothing is known about how patch configurational …

Diverse responses of species to landscape fragmentation in a simple food chain

Habitat destruction, characterized by habitat loss and fragmentation, is a key driver of species extinction in spatial extended communities. Recently, there has been some progress in the theory of spatial food webs, however to date practically little …

Ecotone formation induced by the effects of tidal flooding: A conceptual model of the mud flat-coastal wetland ecosystem

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.

Functional molecular diversity of marine dissolved organic matter is reduced during degradation

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 …

Competition-induced starvation drives large-scale population cycles in Antarctic krill

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 …

No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide

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 …

Pattern formation with repulsive soft-core interactions: Discrete particle dynamics and Dean-Kawasaki equation

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 …