Date of Award
5-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
College/School
College of Science and Mathematics
Department/Program
Mathematical Sciences
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Eric Forgoston
Committee Member
Jennifer Krumins
Committee Member
Lora Billings
Abstract
We consider a model inspired by producer-herbivore-decomposer soil food webs and determine the effect of ecological parameters on the decomposer pool. In particular, we observe how seasonal changes in the stoichiometric quality of the producer coupled with the efficiency of herbivory over the calendar year can induce a shift in the composition of the decomposer pool. Decomposers have a significant effect on the movement of essential nutrients throughout an ecosystem; we further determine how this shift between a bacterially dominated decomposer pool and a fungally dominated pool affects primary production and relative distribution of biomass of the other compartments.
Recommended Citation
Carfora, Kristin, "Seasonal Switching Affects Bacterial-Fungal Dominance in an Ecological System" (2018). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 124.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/124