Linking precipitation and C3-C4 plant production to resource dynamics in higher-trophic-level consumers.

In many ecosystems, seasonal shifts in temperature and precipitation induce pulses of primary productivity that vary in phenology, abundance, and nutritional quality. Variation in these resource pulses could strongly influence community composition and ecosystem function, because these pervasive bottom-up forces play a primary role in determining the biomass, life cycles, and interactions of organisms across trophic levels. The focus of this research is to understand how consumers across trophic levels alter resource use and assimilation over seasonal and interannual timescales in response to climatically driven changes in pulses of primary productivity. We measured the carbon isotope ratios (delta(13)C) of plant,...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: C3 plants, C4 plants, Chihuahuan Desert, Ecology, New Mexico, All tags... USA, carbon, food web, lizard, plant photosynthetic type, precipitation, primary production, pulse, resource, stable isotope, Fewer tags