Beyond simple linear mixing models: process-based isotope partitioning of ecological processes.

Stable isotopes are valuable tools for partitioning the components contributing to ecological processes of interest, such as animal diets and trophic interactions, plant resource use, ecosystem gas fluxes, streamflow, and many more. Stable isotope data are often analyzed with simple linear mixing (SLM) models to partition the contributions of different sources, but SLM models cannot incorporate a mechanistic understanding of the underlying processes and do not accommodate additional data associated with these processes (e.g.

Quantifying the timescales over which exogenous and endogenous conditions affect soil respiration.

Understanding how exogenous and endogenous factors and above-ground-below-ground linkages modulate carbon dynamics is difficult because of the influences of antecedent conditions. For example, there are variable lags between above-ground assimilation and below-ground efflux, and the duration of antecedent periods are often arbitrarily assigned. Nonetheless, developing models linking above- and below-ground processes is crucial for estimating current and future carbon dynamics.

Differential daytime and night-time stomatal behavior in plants from North American deserts.

Night-time stomatal conductance (g(night)) occurs in many ecosystems, but the g(night) response to environmental drivers is relatively unknown, especially in deserts. Here, we conducted a Bayesian analysis of stomatal conductance (g) (N=5013) from 16 species in the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Mojave and Great Basin Deserts (North America). We partitioned daytime g (g(day)) and g(night) responses by describing g as a mixture of two extreme (dark vs high light) behaviors.

Sensitivity of mesquite shrubland CO2 exchange to precipitation in contrasting landscape settings.

In semiarid ecosystems, physiography (landscape setting) may interact with woody-plant and soil microbe communities to constrain seasonal exchanges of material and energy at the ecosystem scale. In an upland and riparian shrubland, we examined the seasonally dynamic linkage between ecosystem CO2 exchange, woody-plant water status and photosynthesis, and soil respiration responses to summer rainfall. At each site, we compared tower-based measurements of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) with ecophysiological measurements among velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina Woot.

The allometry of host-pathogen interactions.

Background: Understanding the mechanisms that control rates of disease progression in humans and other species is an important area of research relevant to epidemiology and to translating studies in small laboratory animals to humans. Body size and metabolic rate influence a great number of biological rates and times. We hypothesize that body size and metabolic rate affect rates of pathogenesis, specifically the times between infection and first symptoms or death.

Precipitation pulse size effects on Sonoran Desert soil microbial crusts.

Deserts are characterized by low productivity and substantial unvegetated space, which is often covered by soil microbial crust communities. Microbial crusts are important for nitrogen fixation, soil stabilization and water infiltration, but their role in ecosystem production is not well understood. This study addresses the following questions: what are the CO2 exchange responses of crusts to pulses of water, does the contribution of crusts to ecosystem flux differ from the soil respiratory flux, and is this contribution pulse size dependent? Following water application to crusts and soils, CO2 exchange was measured and respiration was partitioned through mixing model analysis of Keeling plots across treatments.

Response of net ecosystem gas exchange to a simulated precipitation pulse in a semi-arid grassland: the role of native versus non-native grasses and soil texture.

Physiological activity and structural dynamics in arid and semi-arid ecosystems are driven by discrete inputs or "pulses" of growing season precipitation. Here we describe the short-term dynamics of ecosystem physiology in experimental stands of native (Heteropogon contortus) and invasive (Eragrostis lehmanniana) grasses to an irrigation pulse across two geomorphic surfaces with distinctly different soils: a Pleistocene-aged surface with high clay content in a strongly horizonated soil, and a Holocene-aged surface with low clay content in homogenously structured soils. We evaluated whole-ecosystem and leaf-level CO2 and H2O exchange, soil CO2 efflux, along with plant and soil water status to understand potential constraints on whole-ecosystem carbon exchange during the initiation of the summer monsoon season.