The nutrient-load hypothesis: patterns of resource limitation and community structure driven by competition for nutrients and light Brauer, V.S.; Stomp, M.; Huisman, J. Published in:American Naturalist DOI:10.1086/665650Link to publication Citation for published version (APA):Brauer, V. S., Stomp, M., & Huisman, J. (2012). The nutrient-load hypothesis: patterns of resource limitation and community structure driven by competition for nutrients and light. American Naturalist, 179(6), 721-740. DOI: 10.1086/665650 General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Online enhancements: appendixes. The University of Chicago Press andabstract: Resource competition theory predicts that the outcome of competition for two nutrients depends on the ratio at which these nutrients are supplied. Yet there is considerable debate whether nutrient ratios or absolute nutrient loads determine the species composition of phytoplankton and plant communities. Here we extend the classical resource competition model for two nutrients by including light as additional resource. Our results suggest the nutrientload hypothesis, which predicts that nutrient ratios determine the species composition in oligotrophic environments, whereas nutrient loads are decisive in eutrophic environments. The underlying mechanism is that nutrient enrichment shifts the species interactions from competition for nutrients to competition for light, which favors the dominance of superior light competitors overshadowing all other species. Intermediate nutrient loads can generate high biodiversity through a fine-grained patchwork of two-species and three-species coexistence equilibria. Depending on the species traits, however, competition for nutrients and light may also produce multiple alternative stable states, suppressing the predictability of the species composition. The nutrient-load hypothesis offers a solution for several di...

The phase resetting properties of the circadian system in mice with a functional deletion in either mCry1, mCry2, mPer1 or mPer2 were studied in two experiments.

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Previous studies on sex allocation in simultaneous hermaphrodites have typically focused either on evolutionary or one-time, ontogenetic optimization of sex allocation, ignoring variation within an individual's lifetime. Here, we study whether hermaphrodites also possess facultative sex allocation, that is, a phenotypic flexibility, allowing them to distribute resources to either sex in an opportunistic way during their adult lifetime. We used the simultaneously hermaphroditic free-living flatworm Macrostomum lignano and raised individuals in pairs and groups of eight worms (further called octets) until sexual maturity was reached and sex allocation for the current conditions was expected to be set. Treatment groups were subsequently transferred to the alternative group size, that is, from pairs to octets or from octets to pairs, and compared to two control groups, which were transferred without changing group size. The results show that worms in treatment groups responded as expected by the local mate competition theory for simultaneous hermaphrodites: increasing group size resulted in a shift toward a more male-biased sex allocation and vice versa.These findings reveal that sex allocation in these animals is not fixed during ontogeny, but remains flexible after maturation. We argue that phenotypically flexible sex allocation in hermaphroditic animals may help us to understand the evolution and ecology of hermaphroditism.