We consider the statics of compound droplets made of two immiscible fluids on a rigid substrate, in the limit when gravity is dominated by capillarity. In particular, we show that the merging of four phases along a single contact line is a persistent and robust phenomenon from a mechanical and thermodynamic perspective; it can and does occur for a range of interfacial energies and droplet volum...

Markov models are widely used to describe the dynamics of communities of sessile organisms, because they are easily fitted to field data and provide a rich set of analytical tools. In typical ecological applications, at any point in time, each point in space is in one of a finite set of states (e.g., species, empty space). The models aim to describe the probabilities of transitions between stat...

Much of our understanding of competition comes trom onservations in sessue systems, such as rainforests and marine invertebrate communities. In terrestrial systems, sessile species often compete for multiple limiting resources (i.e., space, light, and nutrients), but in marine systems, space is viewed as the primary or sole limiting resource. Competition theory, on the other hand, suggests that...

In response to a clear gap in knowledge on the biodiversity of sessile Gnesiotrocha rotifers at both global as well as regional Southeast Asian scales, we performed a study of free-living colonial and epiphytic rotifers attached to fifteen aquatic plant species in Thale Noi Lake, the first Ramsar site in Thailand. We identified 44 different taxa of sessile rotifers, including thirty-nine fixose...

The origin of naked barley (Hordeum vulgare L.

Microbes self-organize in microcolonies while transitioning to a sessile form within a protective biofilm matrix. To enable the detailed study of microbial dynamics within these microcolonies, new sessile culture systems are needed that sequester cells and mimic their complex growth conditions and interactions. We present a new nanoliter-scale sessile culture system that is easily implemented v...

Impacts of marine invaders on local biodiversity have not been analyzed across invasive species and invaded habitats. We conducted a meta-analysis of 56 field experiments published in 29 papers that examined the effects of marine invaders on local species richness, diversity, and/or evenness. We show that invaders, across studies, typically have negative effects on biodiversity within a trophic...

We propose an integrative approach that explains patterns of recruitment to adult populations in sessile organisms by considering the numbers of individuals and their body size. A recruitment model, based on a small number of parameters, was developed for sessile organisms and tested using the barnacle Semibalanus balanoides, a marine invertebrate inhabiting North Atlantic intertidal shores. In...

To elucidate the affinity and phylogeny of the endemic North American genus Uvularia, two chloroplast genes, matK and rbcL, were sequenced for all five species of the genus {Uvularia floridana, U. grandifolia, U. perfoliata, U. puberula, and U. sessilifolia) and four selected members of the Liliales (Erythronium japonicum, Disporum sessile, Medeola virginiana, and Clintonia borealis). Sequence ...

The seston represents a highly dilute food source to potential consumers. Consequently, 3 general properties may be expected of sessile filter feeders: (1) high retention efficiency; (2) possession of a low-energy pump system in active filter feeders; and (3) consumption of seston fractions in proportion to availability (i.e. opportunistic feeding). Whereas the first 2 properties have been well...