@article{EhrlichGaedke2018,
  author    = {Ehrlich, Elias and Gaedke, Ursula},
  title     = {Not attackable or not crackable},
  series = {Ecology and evolution},
  volume    = {8},
  journal   = {Ecology and evolution},
  number    = {13},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {2045-7758},
  doi       = {10.1002/ece3.4145},
  pages     = {6625 -- 6637},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {It is well-known that prey species often face trade-offs between defense against predation and competitiveness, enabling predator-mediated coexistence. However, we lack an understanding of how the large variety of different defense traits with different competition costs affects coexistence and population dynamics. Our study focusses on two general defense mechanisms, that is, pre-attack (e.g., camouflage) and post-attack defenses (e.g., weaponry) that act at different phases of the predator—prey interaction. We consider a food web model with one predator, two prey types and one resource. One prey type is undefended, while the other one is pre- or post-attack defended paying costs either by a higher half-saturation constant for resource uptake or a lower maximum growth rate. We show that post-attack defenses promote prey coexistence and stabilize the population dynamics more strongly than pre-attack defenses by interfering with the predator's functional response: Because the predator spends time handling "noncrackable" prey, the undefended prey is indirectly facilitated. A high half-saturation constant as defense costs promotes coexistence more and stabilizes the dynamics less than a low maximum growth rate. The former imposes high costs at low resource concentrations but allows for temporally high growth rates at predator-induced resource peaks preventing the extinction of the defended prey. We evaluate the effects of the different defense mechanisms and costs on coexistence under different enrichment levels in order to vary the importance of bottom-up and top-down control of the prey community.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{RaatzSchaelickeSieberetal.2018,
  author    = {Raatz, Michael and Sch{\"a}licke, Svenja and Sieber, M. and Wacker, Alexander and Gaedke, Ursula},
  title     = {One man's trash is another man's treasure},
  series = {Limnology and Oceanography: Methods},
  volume    = {16},
  journal   = {Limnology and Oceanography: Methods},
  number    = {10},
  publisher = {Wiley},
  address   = {Hoboken},
  issn      = {1541-5856},
  doi       = {10.1002/lom3.10269},
  pages     = {629 -- 639},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Chemostat experiments are employed to study predator-prey and other trophic interactions, frequently using phytoplankton-zooplankton systems. These experiments often use population dynamics as fingerprints of ecological and evolutionary processes, assuming that the contributions of all major actors to these dynamics are known. However, bacteria are often neglected although they are frequently present. We argue that even without external carbon input bacteria may affect the experimental outcomes depending on experimental conditions and the physiological traits of bacteria, phytoplankton, and zooplankton. Using a static carbon flux model and a dynamic simulation model, we predict the minimum and maximum impact of bacteria on phytoplankton-zooplankton population dynamics. Under bacteria-suppressing conditions, we find that the effect of bacteria is indeed negligible and their omission justified. Under bacteria-favoring conditions, however, bacteria may strongly affect average biomasses of phytoplankton and zooplankton. The population dynamics may become highly complex, which may result in wrong interpretations when inferring processes (e.g., trait changes) from population dynamic patterns without considering bacteria. We provide suggestions to reduce the bacterial impact experimentally. Besides optimizing experimental conditions (e.g., the dilution rate) the appropriate choice of the zooplankton predator is decisive. Counterintuitively, bacteria have a larger impact if the predator is not bacterivorous as high bacterial biomasses and complex population dynamics arise via competition for nutrients with the phytoplankton. Only at least partial bacterivory minimizes the impact of bacteria. Our results help to improve the design of chemostat experiments and their interpretation, and advance the study of ecological and evolutionary processes in aquatic food webs.},
  language  = {en}
}