| CHAPTER I. THE FOCUS OF THSI MANUSCRIPT IS ON AUTOTROPH STOICHIOMETRY RELATED TO NUTRIENT SUPPLY. WE EVALUATED HOW MUCH VARIABLE IS NUTRIENT CONTENT AND C: N: P STOICHIOMETRY ACROSS SITES WITH DIFFERENT WATER AND NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY TO TEST THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL DATA ABOUT A CLOSELY MATCH BETWEEN RESOURCE AVAILABILITY AND PLANT STOICHIOMETRY. CHAPTER II. IS FOCUSED ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN NUTRIENT SUPPLY, PANT STOICHIOMETRY AND GROWTH RATE. WE LOOKED TO UNDERSTAND THE EFFECTS OF WATER AND/OR NUTRIENT LIMITATION ON AUTOTROPH GROWTH RATE. IN ADDITION, WE EVALUATED THE GROWTH RATE HYPOTHESIS, PROPOSED BY ECOLOGICAL STOICHIOMETRY, THAT HIGLIGHTS THE MAIN ROLE OF PHOSPHORUS ON THE GROWTH RATE OF HETEROTROPHS AND AUTOTROPHS. CHAPTER III. DEALS WITH ECOLOGICAL STOICHIOMETRY AND HOMESOTASIS OF CONSUMERS. WE EXAMINED ENTIRE FOOD WEB STOICHIOMETRY INCLUDING THE NUTRIENT CONTENT OF HERBIVORES AND TOP PREDATOR SPECIES OF FOUR DESERT FOOD WEBS. NO PREVIOUS STUDIES HAVE EXAMINED THE C: N: P STOICHIOMETRY OF ENTIRE FOOD WEBS, MAINLY BECAUSE MANY SPECIES INTERACT IN COMPLEX AND VARIABLE WAYS IN TYPICAL TROPIC NETWORKS. WE DETERMINED TAXONOMIC AND TROPHIC VARIABILITY IN C: N: P STOICHIOMETRY, AND EVALUATED TO WHAT EXTENT TERRESTRIAL CONSUMERS ARE HOMEOSTATIC REGARDLESS OF SITE, IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY POSSIBLE N AND/OR P LIMITATION IN TERRESTRIAL FOOD WEBS. CHAPTER IV. I FOCUSED ON AUTOTROPH, HERBIVORES AND CONSUMER STOICHIOMETRY. TO DO THIS, A FIELD SURVEYS WERE CONDUCTED TO DESCRIBE PATTERNS IN PLANT-CONSUMER C: N: P STOICHIOMETRY AND TO TEST THE NUTRIENT IMBALANCES THAT CONSTRAIN AT PLAT-HERBIVORES AND AT HERBIVORE-CONSUMER INTERFACES IN DESERT FOOD WEBS SUPPORTED BY COASTAL FOG. |