Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Ecological Niches02:02

Ecological Niches

All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.Multiple species cannot occupy the exact same niche within their habitat. If the niches of two or more species overlap to a large extent, the competitive exclusion principle dictates that one species will outcompete the other, forcing it to...
Distribution and Dispersion00:54

Distribution and Dispersion

Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with their environment and with one another. An important aspect of ecology is understanding where species are found and how individuals are distributed within those areas. The geographic range of a species refers to the total area where its members are located, while dispersion describes the pattern of spacing of individuals within that range.Geographic Range and Dispersion PatternsWithin a species’ geographic range, individuals may be distributed...
Natural Selection and Adaptation01:15

Natural Selection and Adaptation

Natural selection, a fundamental concept in evolutionary biology, is the mechanism by which evolution is driven, favoring organisms that are best adapted to their environments. This process enhances their chances of survival and reproduction. Adaptation, a key outcome of this process, involves genetic modifications that optimize an organism's functionality under specific environmental challenges, such as extreme cold or thinner air at high altitudes.
Beyond physical adaptations, psychological...
Optimal Foraging00:48

Optimal Foraging

How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
Storage01:23

Storage

A schema is a mental framework that helps individuals organize and interpret information. Schemata, formed from previous experiences, influence how we process new information: how we encode it, the inferences we make, and how we retrieve it. For instance, a schema for what a typical classroom looks like might include desks, a teacher's desk, a whiteboard, and students in such an environment. This expectation helps us quickly understand and navigate new classrooms without needing to analyze each...
Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies00:51

Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies

Organisms must balance energy intake with the energy required for growth, maintenance, and reproduction. These trade-offs result in a variety of survivorship and reproductive strategies, including semelparity and iteroparity. Semelparous species reproduce only once in their lifetime, often investing most available resources into that single reproductive event. Iteroparous species, by contrast, reproduce multiple times over their lifetimes, typically allocating fewer resources to any single...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Community-Level Metabolic Shifts Following Land Use Change in the Amazon Rainforest Identified by a Supervised Machine Leaning Approach.

Environmental microbiology reports·2025
Same author

Parasitic plasmid-host dynamics and host competition in flowing habitats.

Mathematical biosciences·2019
Same author

Sink or swim? Vertical movement and nutrient storage in phytoplankton.

Journal of theoretical biology·2017
Same author

STIMULATING EFFECT OF ANABAENA SP. (CYANOBACTERIA) EXUDATE ON PRYMNESIUM PARVUM (HAPTOPHYTA)(1).

Journal of phycology·2016
Same author

An exploratory study of air emissions associated with shale gas development and production in the Barnett Shale.

Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (1995)·2014
Same author

Competition and allelopathy with resource storage: two resources.

Journal of theoretical biology·2014

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
04:43

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Is storage an adaptation to spatial variation in resource availability?

James P Grover1

  • 1Department of Biology and Program in Environmental and Earth Sciences, University of Texas, Arlington, Texas 76019, USA. grover@uta.edu

The American Naturalist
|January 2, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Resource storage in phytoplankton does not significantly improve competitive fitness in randomly varying habitats. Benefits are only observed in predictable, temporally variable environments with periodic nutrient pulses.

More Related Videos

Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration
14:44

Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration

Published on: June 7, 2024

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Visualizing Visual Adaptation
04:43

Visualizing Visual Adaptation

Published on: April 24, 2017

Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration
14:44

Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration

Published on: June 7, 2024

Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Theoretical Ecology
  • Population Dynamics

Background:

  • Resource storage by organisms can influence population structure and competition.
  • Understanding how resource storage impacts phytoplankton competition in variable environments is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To theoretically investigate the consequences of resource storage for phytoplankton species competing for a single nutrient.
  • To determine the conditions under which resource storage enhances competitive fitness.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a Lagrangian modeling approach to simulate phytoplankton populations.
  • Modeled two distinct habitats: an unstirred chemostat and a partially mixed water column, both with nutrient gradients.
  • Divided competitor populations into subpopulations to track movement and resource acquisition.

Main Results:

  • Resource storage provided little indication of enhancing competitive fitness in the analyzed scenarios.
  • Superior competitors typically achieved low nutrient concentrations at steady state or exhibited high maximal growth rates.
  • Resource storage demonstrated enhanced competitive fitness specifically in temporally variable habitats with periodic nutrient pulses.

Conclusions:

  • Resource storage is unlikely to be a significant factor for competitive fitness in phytoplankton within purely spatially variable habitats with random nutrient patch encounters.
  • The benefits of resource storage are context-dependent, primarily appearing in predictable temporal variations rather than random spatial ones for passively moving organisms.