Biocomplexity Incubation Proposal: Biocomplexity and Aquatic Food Webs: Algal and Zooplankton Diversity Against a Backdrop of Human Stochiometric Disturbances

Michigan Technological University, Houghton MI

Investigators

Abstract

0083731 Kerfoot The "paradox of the plankton" was postulated in 1961 to emphasize how little we understand about the factors which promote great plankton diversity in apparently featureless pelagic regions. In 1982, the supply ratio hypothesis was presented and served as an important contribution for understanding how species could coexist on limiting nutrients. Recent modeling and experimental results suggest that very short time scale fluctuations, either caused by external forcing factors (nutrient pulses) or internal oscillations (chaos) inherent in nutrient-competition or predator-prey dynamics, may greatly increase diversity at the base of food webs. A series of interdisciplinary workshops and a symposium will gather researchers to examine how temporal and spatial patchiness interacts with food-web oscillations to promote diversity.