Objective

The goal of the FreshBioFun is to examine how carbon and nutrient cycling in streams is modulated by the diversity of resources (plant litter), microbial decomposers and invertebrate consumers. To attain our goal we assembled a team of researchers on aquatic ecology, invertebrate ecology, microbial ecology and ecological modeling. We will use multiple species pool experiments in which diversity will be manipulated at several trophic levels aiming at contributing to a mechanistic understanding of the impact of biodiversity changes on freshwater ecosystems. We will use field and microcosms studies because microcosm simplicity allows a high degree of experimental control and replication needed to address many questions that are inaccessible through field experiments. We will include in silico studies in an attempt to overcome the practical constrains on the size of species pool, number of diversity levels, number of replicates and temporal scale.