Southern Research Station

Title: Nutrient enrichment reduces constraints on material flows in a detritus-based food web

Author: Cross, Wyatt F.; Wallace, Bruce; Rosemond, Amy D.

Date: 2007

Source:  Ecology, 88(10), 2007, pp. 2563–2575

Description: Most aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are experiencing increased nutrient availability, which is affecting their structure and function. By altering community composition and productivity of consumers, enrichment can indirectly cause changes in the pathways and magnitude of material flows in food webs. These changes, in turn, have major consequences for material storage and cycling in the ecosystem. Understanding mechanisms and predicting consequences of nutrient-induced changes in material flows requires a quantitative food web approach that combines information on consumer energetics and consumer–resource stoichiometry.

Keywords: detritus-based food webs, ecological stoichiometry, ecosystem enrichment, elemental imbalance, invertebrate, material flow food web, secondary production, stream, trophic basis of production

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Citation

Cross, Wyatt F.; Wallace, Bruce; Rosemond, Amy D.   2007.  Nutrient enrichment reduces constraints on material flows in a detritus-based food web.   Ecology, 88(10), 2007, pp. 2563–2575