About this Research Topic

Background

All living things are subject to the physical constraints of the law of mass balance across multiple chemical elements. Furthermore, living things cannot form biomass in arbitrary combinations of chemical elements - they are constrained by the chemical formulas of major biomolecules (such as nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates). These fundamental “rules of life” form the basis of the wide-ranging theory of ecological stoichiometry, the study of the balance of energy and multiple chemical elements in ecological interactions. Ecological / biological stoichiometry has been a powerful tool to integrate diverse disciplines, connecting all areas of ecology but also evolutionary and functional organismal biology (physiology, behavior) as well as earth sciences and sustainability science. The current Research Topic aims to provide a venue for the products of the 5th Woodstoich workshop for early career investigators being held at the Biologische Anstalt Helgoland (AWI, Germany) in September 2024.

Woodstoich is a 5-day professional advancement event for early career scientists working in the field of ecological stoichiometry and held every five years on the same dates as the legendary Woodstock concert. The event has been held four times previously: in Norway in 2004, in Japan in 2009, and in Australia in 2014, and in the USA in 2019. Its vision is to create a diverse community of early career scientists to invigorate ecology by improving and expanding the use of stoichiometric theory.

Extensively led by the early career scientists themselves, Woodstoich 5 involves:

· 5 working groups formed months ahead of the conference to define and advance a project
· Attendees arrive at the workshop with a first draft of a manuscript
· Attendees complete their manuscript during the first days of the workshop
· Manuscripts receive thorough 24-hour peer review
· Manuscripts revised and resubmitted, with acceptance or rejection generally determined before the end of the event.

The five working groups for Woodstoich 4 are:

1. Scaling Imbalances: Modeling the Consequences of Stoichiometric Mismatch for Populations and Nutrient Cycling
2. phytoStoich: Use of model-data integration framework to better estimate phytoplankton stoichiometry and primary productivity
3. SPACE-Stoich: Spectral Acquisition of the Composition of Elements
4. Mixo-Stoich: Ecological stoichiometry in the planktonic mixotroph paradigm
5. Stoichi-omics: Ecological Stoichiometry in the Age of Omics

Frontiers sponsored the conference from which the authors for this collection were sourced. Frontiers has waived the article processing charges (APCs) for some contributing authors to this collection. This does not influence the editorial decisions and peer review process, which maintain high standards of rigor and impartiality. The Topic Editors report no competing interests related to this Research Topic.

Keywords: Woodstoich, stoichiometry, biomass, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, homeostasis, community composition, nutrient cycling, evolution

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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