Journal ArticleDOI
Too much of a good thing: on stoichiometrically balanced diets and maximal growth.
Maarten Boersma,James J. Elser +1 more
TLDR
It is suggested that animals most vulnerable to effects of high food nutrient content are those that normally feed on low- quality (low-nutrient: C) food, and have a relatively low body nutrient content themselves, such as herbivores and detritivores.Abstract:
Nutritional imbalances are of great interest in the ecological stoichiometry literature, in which researchers have focused almost exclusively on cases where nutrients are available in low amounts relative to energy (carbon), and animal growth is impaired due to insufficient nutrient intake. Little attention has been given to situations where food elemental content is higher than the level that satisfies animal requirements. However, most animals are strongly homeostatic with respect to the elemental composition of their body; hence they must excrete the excess of elements that are not in short supply. To date, stoichiometric theory has assumed that excretion of superfluous elements does not come with a cost and, thus, that consumption of food with surplus nutrients does not impair performance. Here we challenge this assumption, based on a compilation of several examples involving food phosphorus content that show that the performance of a wide variety of animals decreases when supplied with food containing high concentrations of (potentially) limiting nutrients. We discuss possible mechanisms for this phenomenon, and suggest that animals most vulnerable to effects of high food nutrient content are those that normally feed on low- quality (low-nutrient: C) food, and have a relatively low body nutrient content themselves, such as herbivores and detritivores.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Nutrition, ecology and nutritional ecology: toward an integrated framework
TL;DR: It is suggested that the distinctive feature of nutritional ecology is its integrative nature, and that the field would benefit from more attention to formalizing a theoretical and quantitative framework for developing this.
Journal ArticleDOI
Eutrophication, harmful algae and biodiversity - Challenging paradigms in a world of complex nutrient changes.
TL;DR: The underlying message is that nutrient proportions and forms can alter biodiversity, even when nutrients are at concentrations in excess of those considered limiting.
Journal ArticleDOI
The elemental stoichiometry of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and its relationships with organismic lifestyle and ecosystem structure and function: a review and perspectives
TL;DR: Combining elemental stoichiometry with metabolomics and/or genomics should improve the understanding of the coupling of different levels of biological organization, from elemental composition to the structure and evolution of ecosystems, via cellular metabolism and nutrient cycling.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological stoichiometry: An elementary approach using basic principles
TL;DR: Some of the development of ES in aquatic sciences especially over the past 10 yr, focusing on homeostasis and mass balance in the consumer, and its effect on trophic efficiency and nutrient recycling in aquatic communities are addressed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Excess carbon in aquatic organisms and ecosystems: physiological, ecological, and evolutionary implications
Dag O. Hessen,Thomas R. Anderson +1 more
TL;DR: The evolutionary and ecological implications of ‘‘excess C’’ both at the organism and ecosystem level, as well as governing the energy flux and C pathways at the ecosystem level are discussed.
References
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Resource competition and community structure
TL;DR: This book builds a mechanistic, resource-based explanation of the structure and functioning of ecological communities and explores such problems as the evolution of "super species," the differences between plant and animal community diversity patterns, and the cause of plant succession.
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Ecological Stoichiometry: The Biology of Elements from Molecules to the Biosphere
Robert W. Sterner,James J. Elser +1 more
TL;DR: Thank you very much for reading ecological stoichiometry the biology of elements from molecules to the biosphere, and maybe you have knowledge that, people have look hundreds of times for their chosen readings, but end up in infectious downloads.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Paradox of the Plankton
TL;DR: The problem that is presented by the phytoplankton is essentially how it is possible for a number of species to coexist in a relatively isotropic or unstructured environment all competing for the same sorts of materials.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nutritional constraints in terrestrial and freshwater food webs
James J. Elser,William F. Fagan,Robert F. Denno,Dean R. Dobberfuhl,Dean R. Dobberfuhl,Ayoola Folarin,Andrea F. Huberty,Sebastian J. Interlandi,Susan S. Kilham,Edward McCauley,Kimberly L. Schulz,Evan Siemann,Robert W. Sterner +12 more
TL;DR: In both lakes and terrestrial systems, herbivores should have low growth efficiencies when consuming autotrophs with typical carbon-to-nutrient ratios and stoichiometric constraints on herbivore growth appear to be qualitatively similar and widespread in both environments.
Journal ArticleDOI
Growth rate–stoichiometry couplings in diverse biota
James J. Elser,Kumud Acharya,Marcia Kyle,James B. Cotner,Wataru Makino,Therese A. Markow,Thomas D. Watts,Sarah E. Hobbie,William F. Fagan,John D. Schade,James M. Hood,Robert W. Sterner +11 more
TL;DR: The close relationship between P and RNA contents indicates that ribosomes themselves represent a biogeochemically significant repository of P in ecosystems and that allocation of P to ribosome generation is a central process in biological production in ecological systems.
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