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Foundational concept of ecology tested by experiment
http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/23993.aspx[font face=Serif][font size=5]Foundational concept of ecology tested by experiment[/font]
[font size=4]Acting through links between four trophic levels and across two ecosystems, purple loosestrife altered life in nearby ponds[/font]
June 22, 2012
By Diana Lutz
[font size=3]…
Now a summer-long study shows that the flowering invasive plant purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) triggers a chain of interactions that ultimately alters the diversity of zooplankton populations in artificial ponds.
The interactions cross traditional ecosystem boundaries, connecting aquatic to terrestrial systems on the wings of dragonflies that exploit, at different times in their lives, the resources of both the water and the land.
“It’s easy to say that everything is connected in some way, but how much these connections matter is something that we don’t always know,” says Kevin G. Smith, PhD, adjunct professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and associate director of the Tyson Research Center, WUSTL’s 2,000-acre field station.
By verifying one of the foundational ideas of ecology, the experiment, published electronically May 24 by the journal Oecologia in advance of print, will help inform decisions about biological control of invasive species, restoration of degraded habitats and similar ecological issues.
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2357-1[font size=4]Acting through links between four trophic levels and across two ecosystems, purple loosestrife altered life in nearby ponds[/font]
June 22, 2012
By Diana Lutz
[font size=3]…
Now a summer-long study shows that the flowering invasive plant purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) triggers a chain of interactions that ultimately alters the diversity of zooplankton populations in artificial ponds.
The interactions cross traditional ecosystem boundaries, connecting aquatic to terrestrial systems on the wings of dragonflies that exploit, at different times in their lives, the resources of both the water and the land.
“It’s easy to say that everything is connected in some way, but how much these connections matter is something that we don’t always know,” says Kevin G. Smith, PhD, adjunct professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and associate director of the Tyson Research Center, WUSTL’s 2,000-acre field station.
By verifying one of the foundational ideas of ecology, the experiment, published electronically May 24 by the journal Oecologia in advance of print, will help inform decisions about biological control of invasive species, restoration of degraded habitats and similar ecological issues.
…[/font][/font]
