In this study we simultaneously manipulated the patchiness of complex organic resources and the composition of microfaunal populations (protozoa and nematodes) in soil, to influence microbial mineralization processes and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of nutrient acquisition from decomposing plant residues by ryegrass plants. Hotspot treatments of decreasing patchiness were established ...

The dominance of invasive species is often assumed to reflect their competitive superiority over displaced native species. However, invasive species may be abundant because of their greater tolerance to anthropogenic impacts accompanying their introduction. Thus, invasive species can either be the drivers or passengers of change.We distinguish between these two possibilities in California grass...

Karlodinium veneficum (syn. Karlodinium micrum, Bergholtz et al. 2006; J Phycol 42: 170–193) is a small athecate dinoflagellate commonly present in low levels in temperate, coastal waters. Occasionally, K. veneficum forms ichthyotoxic blooms due to the presence of cytotoxic, hemolytic compounds, putatively named karlotoxins. To evaluate the anti-grazing properties of these karlotoxins, we condu...

Dinoflagellates are a major cause of harmful algal blooms (HABs), with consequences for coastal marine ecosystem functioning and services. Alexandrium fundyense (previously Alexandrium tamarense) is one of the most abundant and widespread toxigenic species in the temperate Northern and Southern Hemisphere and produces paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins as well as lytic allelochemical substanc...

Continuous exposure to an aversive mixture was investigated as a means of maintaining aversion to vermeerbos in sheep subjected to the social influence of non-averted sheep. The use of an aversive mixture was based on a hypothesis that continuous exposure to an acceptable aversive mixture (containing both the aversive substance and the identification factors of vermeerbos mixed with maize meal)...

Background Campylobacteriosis is a major cause of gastroenteritis in the UK, and although 70% of cases are associated with food sources, the remainder are probably associated with wider environmental exposure. Methods In order to investigate wider environmental transmission, we conducted a spatio-temporal analysis of the association of human cases of Campylobacter in the Tyne catchment with w...

INTRODUCTION Lvni-north of the great southward bend o[ the Platte River in central Nebraska but southeast of the sandhills, there are several thousand square miles of rugged uplands known as loess bluffs. They are quite unlike the sandhills with their typical cover, largely of postelimax tall grasses. They also differ widely from the Nebraska plain eastward and south-eastward where mid-grass or...