Growth of Cottontail Rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) in Response to Ancillary Sodium

Consistency of temperament in bighorn ewes and correlates with behaviour and life history

“…If salt consumption affected reproductive traits in bighorn ewes, bold females would have benefited from greater access to the salt. Some laboratory experiments have shown that a salt-deficient diet affects growth or reproduction of mammals (McCreedy & Weeks 1993;Seynaeve et al 1996;Woolfenden & Millar 1997). We could not estimate the amount of salt consumed by each ewe, and we do not know whether shy ewes were salt deficient.…”

The evolution of halophytes, glycophytes and crops, and its implications for food security under saline conditions

“…Because of the herbivory threat, plants are under continual pressure to be poor quality forage. The exclusion of sodium from shoots of plants on low sodium soil has worked so well that sodium is the major limiting mineral nutrient in herbivore diets (Christian, ; Grasman, ; McCreedy & Weeks, ). Only phosphorous, which is also generally maintained at low concentrations in plant shoots (usually interpreted as its arithmetic inverse, high P use ‘efficiency’), has an importance approaching a similar magnitude (Grasman, ; Treydte et al ., , ), but as P is an essential macronutrient for plants as well as animals, its exclusion comes with a higher physiological and fitness cost to the plant itself.…”

“…Tansley 1989;Grasman, 1993;McCreedy & Weeks, 1993). Only phosphorous, which is also generally maintained at low concentrations in plant shoots (usually interpreted as its arithmetic inverse, high P use 'efficiency'), has an importance approaching a similar magnitude (Grasman, 1993;Treydte et al, 2007Treydte et al, , 2008, but as P is an essential macronutrient for plants as well as animals, its exclusion comes with a higher physiological and fitness cost to the plant itself.…”