population dynamics

Mechanisms underpinning the net removal rates of dissolved organic carbon in the global ocean

With almost 700 Pg of carbon, marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) stores more carbon than all living biomass on Earth combined. However, the controls behind the persistence and the spatial patterns of DOC concentrations on the basin scale remain …

Driving forces of Antarctic krill abundance

Krill population model reveals recruitment is driven by intercohort competition and age-specific seasonal environmental forcings.

3rd Stanislaw Lem Workshop on Biodiversity and Evolution

The next iteration of our notorious series of Stanislaw Lem Workshops, March 6-9, 2023 at the WasserCluster Lunz, Austria

Estimation of functional diversity and species traits from ecological monitoring data

The rampant loss of biodiversity is starting to be recognized as a global crisis rivaling the climate emergency. To address this crisis, scientists need robust methods to measure the diversity in a system. Importantly, these methods should not only count species but capture the variety of different functions that the species in a system can perform. In this paper, we propose a machine learning method by which existing data from ecosystem monitoring can be reanalyzed to reveal changes of functional biodiversity over time.

The Gossip Paradox: why do bacteria share genes?

Bacteria, in contrast to eukaryotic cells contain two types of genes: chromosomal genes that are fixed to the cell, and plasmids that are mobile genes, easily shared to other cells. The sharing of plasmid genes between individual bacteria and between …

Growth, organic matter release, aggregation and recycling during a diatom bloom: a model-based analysis of a mesocosm experiment

Mechanisms terminating phytoplankton blooms are often not well understood. Potentially involved processes such as consumption by grazers, flocculation, and viral lysis each have different post-bloom consequences on the processing of the organic …

Comparing Optimization Criteria in Antibiotic Allocation Protocols

Clinicians prescribing antibiotics in a hospital context follow one of several possible 'treatment protocols' - heuristic rules designed to balance the immediate needs of patients against the long term threat posed by the evolution of antibiotic …

Emergent Diversity and Persistent Turnover in Evolving Microbial Cross-Feeding Networks

A distinguishing feature of many ecological networks in the microbial realm is the diversity of substrates that could potentially serve as energy sources for microbial consumers. The microorganisms are themselves the agents of compound …

Coexistence patterns and diversity in a trait-based metacommunity on an environmental gradient

The dynamics of trait-based metacommunities have attracted much attention, but not much is known about how dispersal and spatial environmental variability mutually interact with each other to drive coexistence patterns and diversity. Here, we present …

Cell shape: the soul of phytoplankton

Top Story in HIFMB News letter 02/21 on phytoplankton cell shapes