Agriculture and urban activities are major sources of phosphorus and nitrogen to aquatic ecosystems. Atmospheric deposition further contributes as a source of N. These nonpoint inputs of nutrients are difficult to measure and regulate because they derive from activities dispersed over wide areas of land and are variable in time due to effects of weather. In aquatic ecosystems, these nutrients c...

There is growing evidence that terrestrial ecosystems are exporting more dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to aquatic ecosystems than they did just a few decades ago. This "browning" phenomenon will alter the chemistry, physics, and biology of inland water bodies in complex and difficult-to-predict ways. Experiments provide an opportunity to elucidate how browning will affect the stability and fun...

Ecosystem functioning is one of the most striking topics in ecological research. All human beings depend on the functioning of ecosystems and the services provided by ecosystems [1]. Ecosystem services provide food from e.g. agriculture and fish as well as clean water and air. Thus, the functioning of ecosystems is a crucial topic of experimental studies in ecology. The first known ecological e...

Mercury has been well known as an environmental pollutant for several decades. As early as the 19501s it was established that emissions of mercury to the environment could have serious effects on human health. These early studies demonstrated that fish and other wildlife from various ecosystems commonly attain mercury levels of toxicological concern when directly affected by mercury-containing ...

This contribution examines various flow measures based on analysis of 41 quantified models of trophic interactions in aquatic ecosystems. System productivity/biomass ratio is shown to relate to ecosystem maturity and to the degree of cycling in the systems. Distinct patterns or clusters are observed for different types of resource systems with respect to average path lengths and residence times...

Here, we review consumer-resource (C-R) theory to show that the paradox of enrichment is a special case of a more general theoretical result. That is, we show that increased energy flux, relative to the consumer loss rate, makes C-R interactions top heavy (i.e., greater C:R biomass ratio) and less stable. We then review the literature on the attributes of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems to a...