Herbivores, the functional diversity of plants species, and the cycling of nutrients in ecosystems

DOI10.1006/TPBI.1997.1327MaRDI QIDQ1370643zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors John Pastor, Yosef Cohen

Publication date 26 October 1997

Published in Theoretical Population Biology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1006/tpbi.1997.1327

zbMATH Keywords

compartmental modelsherbivoresnutrient and energy flowordinary differential equations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Ecology (92D40)

Review text

Here, we explore the effect of herbivores on ecosystem nutrient and energy flow, given the assumption that plant species differ in herbivore preference, nutrient uptake rates, and decomposition rates. We will show that if the consumer selects a plant species based on the chemical factors that simultaneously control both digestion and decomposition, then over a very wide range of consumer return of fecal material, the rates of energy and nutrient flow through the system are less than that of a system where the consumer is absent. Moreover, one of the plants becomes extinct at high rates of consumption and nutrient return in fecal material.

Recommendations

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• Stoichiometric modeling of aboveground-belowground interaction of herbaceous plant and two herbivores
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Cites work

• Population dynamics of systems with consumers that maintain a constant ratio of intake rates of two resources

Cited in

(3)

• Coexistence of multiple food chains in a heterogeneous environment: Interactions among community structure, ecosystem functioning, and nutrient dynamics
• Cyclical succession in grazed ecosystems: the importance of interactions between different-sized herbivores and different-sized predators
• Enrichment in a stoichiometric model of two producers and one consumer

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