Biology Department Seminar

Hosted by Emily BernhardtOrganisms vary widely in the physiological characteristics that govern nutrient uptake, with implications for competitive interactions, community composition and diversity, and other ecological characteristics. However, one unexplored link is the relationship between physiological characteristics and the temporal patterns of nutrient uptake. I will present a simple model that relates the physiological characteristics and status to fine-scale temporal variation in nutrient uptake and export. This model makes several significant predictions: 1) only pulses of limiting resources induce sympathetic pulses in uptake of other resources; 2) the shape of those pulses, when they occur, depends strongly on the plasticity of organism stoichiometry and the kinetics of assimilation and growth; and 3) these characteristics can differ among elements (e.g., nitrogen vs. phosphorus).