Physiological & Biochemical Response of Ecosystems to Chemical Inputs

Acute nutrient pulses—such as those from carrion, leaf litter, or other episodic inputs—can trigger rapid and spatially heterogeneous ecological responses. In chemical ecology, they can alter nutrient sources and metabolite production that changes plant and microbial signaling networks. Plant physiology often shows short-term boosts in growth, stress responses, or altered root allocation as plants exploit or defend against sudden nutrient pulses. At the ecosystem scale, nutrient cycling accelerates as pulses drive sharp increases in mineralization, leaching, and gaseous fluxes. Microbial diversity and function shift rapidly, with opportunistic taxa proliferating and enzymatic pathways restructured to process the sudden resource influx. Similarly, plant–fungal interactions may be disrupted or reconfigured, as mycorrhizae adjust to changing nutrient balances and competition with free-living microbes intensifies.