Special issue in Oikos: Call for papers

Submitted by editor on 15 December 2020.

The role of the nutritional quality of resources in ecosystem functioning.

Special issue in Oikos: Call for paper

****Extended deadline for abstracts: 31 March****

Dear Colleagues,

We cordially invite you to submit manuscripts to a special issue of Oikos on the role of the nutritional quality of resources in ecosystem functioning.

Our understanding of ecosystem functioning is strongly linked to the study of prey/predator (including plant/herbivore) relationships and food webs structure. However, trophic ecology has often focused on identifying taxonomic relationships and quantifying the biomass consumed by predators, but has often failed to recognize the importance of the nutritional quality of resources in ecosystem dynamics. For example, it appears for some consumers that the nutritional composition of available resources is at least as important as the sheer biomass ingested.

Trophic ecology needs to take into account the quality of resources to remove some barriers limiting our understanding of the functioning of trophic networks. This special issue will address some of the research fronts related to the role of plant and prey nutritional quality (and its variability) in ecosystem dynamics:

- What are the determinants of nutritional quality and what is their variability?

- What trophic interactions involve resource quality?

- What are the effects on consumer fitness and population dynamics?

-   What are the interactions between resource quality and ecosystem services' quality?

These questions should be particularly addressed at large scales, particularly between ecosystems (marine, freshwater, terrestrial, soil), through different trophic levels and at different prey/predator interfaces (including plant/animal and animal/animal). 

If you are interested in submitting your paper to the Special issue, send an abstract of it to jerome [dot] spitz [at] cebc [dot] cnrs [dot] fr and dries [dot] bonte [at] ugent [dot] be before March 1st, 2021. For Forum articles, a proposal is required first before April 1, 2021, via https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/oikos.

If they approve of the submission, you are welcome to submit it to Oikos at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/oikos before July 1, 2021. Articles will be reviewed following the normal procedures and will need to meet with Oikos quality criteria.  If you are interested in contributing within the mentioned time schedule, don’t hesitate to contact one of the Guest Editors for further details:

 

Guest Editors:

Dr. Jérôme Spitz is a research scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).  He is marine ecologist with a particular interest on relationships between diet quality and cost of living in top marine predators. His research in functional foraging ecology ranges from genes to ecosystems and contributes to the monitoring and conservation of marine megafauna. PhD in Ecology at the University of La Rochelle (France), Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia (Canada), he serves as Co-Director of the Observatoire Pelagis dedicated to the conservation of marine megafauna, and he is the French national scientific advisor for the implementation of the EU Marine Strategic Framework Directive regarding marine mammals.  E-mail: jerome [dot] spitz [at] cebc [dot] cnrs [dot] fr

Dr. Alexandre Bec teaches functional ecology and limnology at the University of Clermont Auvergne. Most of his research has been dedicated to the study of the transfers of essential compounds within aquatic food webs and more especially at the microbes-macrobes interface. His current research focuses on the impact of nutritional constraints on the performance and energy budget of organisms in various environmental contexts. He also leads the CNRS Research Group on Trophic Ecology (GRET). E-mail: alexandre [dot] bec [at] uca [dot] fr

Prof. Marie-Elodie Perga is a lake biogeochemist at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her research focuses on carbon fluxes and processes in lakes and how they respond to environmental changes, with specific interest on the interactions of physical, chemical and biological processes. PhD in Populations and Ecosystem biology at University of Savoie (France), Post-doctoral-fellow at University of Victoria (Canada), Junior and Senior research scientist at INRAE (France). She has led a synthesis of methods in trophic ecology as a work-package leader of the CNRS Research Group on Trophic Ecology. E-mail: marie-elodie [dot] perga [at] unil [dot] ch

Dr. Michael Danger is an assistant professor at the University of Lorraine, France. Investigating Ecological Stoichiometry since his PhD (University Paris 6, France), his current research mainly focuses trophic ecology and the role resources elemental imbalances might play in community assemblages and ecosystem functions. Initially working on lakes, he now tries to extend stoichiometric approaches to headwater streams and polluted ecosystems. He is currently leading a project aimed at understanding the causes and consequences of the elemental plasticity of microbial decomposers for ecosystem functioning. He was appointed in 2018, as a junior member, to the prestigious Institut Universitaire de France.

E-mail: michael [dot] danger [at] univ-lorraine [dot] fr

 

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