Construction and analysis of mathematical models for energy flow and nutrient cycling in ecosystems

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Carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) are vital constituents in biomass: C supplies energy to cells, N is an essential component of proteins, and P is an essential component of nucleic acids. The scarcity of any of these elements can severely restrict organism and population growth. Hence, in nutrient deficient environments the consideration of nutrient cycling, or stoichiometry, is essential for population models. Ecological stoichiometry has proven to be an important new approach for understanding ecological interactions. With its emphasis on elemental matter, stoichiometric theory covers all biological scales, from molecules to the biosphere, and allows the construction of mechanistic models via rigorous chemical and physical constraints. Mechanistically derived stoichiometric models can explain many fundamental paradoxes in ecology and generate new mathematical challenges.