The Multidimensional Nutritional Niche

Machovsky‐Capuska, Gabriel E.; Senior, Alistair M.; Simpson, Stephen J.; Raubenheimer, David

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2016.02.009

Cited by 135 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Understanding the nutrient requirements and foraging goals of animals is important to predict how animals will respond to environmental changes in prey availability Machovsky-Capuska et al 2016). The challenges faced by foragers in marine environments are particularity complex.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex-specific macronutrient foraging strategies in a highly successful marine predator: the Australasian gannet

et al. 2016

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Farewell Spit gannetry in New Zealand. Our results showed intra-and inter-specific variation in the protein, lipid and water composition of prey captured by our sample of 111 Australasian gannets. In addition, we observed significant differences in the Australasian gannets' nutritional niche between seasons. We provide evidence of sex-specific macronutrient foraging strategies in a successful marine predator in the wild. We have shown that in spite of fluctuations in the nutritional composition of foods available to Australasian gannets, males consistently capture prey with higher protein-to-lipid ratios and lower lipid-to-water ratios than females. These results aid to better understand the evolutionary relationship between macronutrient selection and sex-specific traits in wild animals. They also suggest an incentive for these predators to combine individually imbalanced but nutritionally complementary foods to achieve dietary balance, further highlighting the likelihood that prey selection is guided by the balance of macronutrients, rather than energy alone.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex-specific macronutrient foraging strategies in a highly successful marine predator: the Australasian gannet

et al. 2016

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“…The possibility of exploiting new food substrates provides the opportunity for species to expand their distribution range and can contribute to diversification. To colonize new foods, animals need to adapt to the nutritional, physical, and chemical properties of the food [2]. Many studies have shown how this adaptation often involves acquiring the ability to exploit foods of differing physical properties or tolerate new, frequently toxic, chemical compositions [3, 4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the fruit fly Drosophila sechellia and tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta have evolved tolerance to toxic compounds of their food plants, Morinda and Nicotiana , respectively [3, 4]. Thus, the range of potential food types a species can exploit will define its ability to expand its nutritional niche [2]. In addition, to expand their nutritional niche species need to adapt to differences in the nutrient content of the new foods [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the range of potential food types a species can exploit will define its ability to expand its nutritional niche [2]. In addition, to expand their nutritional niche species need to adapt to differences in the nutrient content of the new foods [2]. The nutritional composition of food substrates impacts a wide range of life-history and other traits [5–8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adaptation to new nutritional environments: larval performance, foraging decisions, and adult oviposition choices in Drosophila suzukii

et al. 2017

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BackgroundUnderstanding how species adapt to new niches is a central issue in evolutionary ecology. Nutrition is vital for the survival of all organisms and impacts species fitness and distribution. While most Drosophila species exploit rotting plant parts, some species have diversified to use ripe fruit, allowing earlier colonization. The decomposition of plant material is facilitated by yeast colonization and proliferation. These yeasts serve as the main protein source for Drosophila larvae. This dynamic rotting process entails changes in the nutritional composition of the food and other properties, and animals feeding on material at different stages of decay are expected to have behavioural and nutritional adaptations.ResultsWe compared larval performance, feeding behaviour and adult oviposition site choice between the ripe fruit colonizer and invasive pest Drosophila suzukii, and a closely-related rotting fruit colonizer, Drosophila biarmipes. Through the manipulation of protein:carbohydrate ratios in artificial diets, we found that D. suzukii larvae perform better at lower protein concentrations and consume less protein rich diets relative to D. biarmipes. For adult oviposition, these species differed in preference for substrate hardness, but not for the substrate nutritional composition.ConclusionsOur findings highlight that rather than being an exclusive specialist on ripe fruit, D. suzukii’s adaptation to use ripening fruit allow it to colonize a wider range of food substrates than D. biarmipes, which is limited to soft foods with higher protein concentrations. Our results underscore the importance of nutritional performance and feeding behaviours in the colonization of new food niches.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12898-017-0131-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…Like traditional traits, isotopic traits can be fit with a convex hull, the size of which has been extensively used as a proxy of the size of the trophic niche occupied by a group of individuals (Layman et al, 2007(Layman et al, , 2012Cucherousset and Villéger, 2015). Similarly, the geometric framework of nutrition (NGF) has been used to build multidimensional models of animal macronutrient budgets (i.e., multidimensional nutritional niche) in which information on food macronutrient contents (i.e., proteins, carbohydrates, lipids), animal macronutrient requirements, and animal nutritional processes such as macronutrient intake, growth and macronutrient use, are integrated, modeled and visualized as three macronutrient axes (Raubenheimer et al, 2015;Machovsky-Capuska et al, 2016. Although this approach has been extremely useful to improve our understanding of the foraging behavior, post-ingestion allocation of macronutrients, and the dietary niche breath of a large diversity of animals, it is a data hungry approach and some of the required nutritional descriptors are restricted to specific taxonomic groups-such as animals but not plants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Multidimensional Stoichiometric Niche

et al. 2017

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The niche concept is essential to understanding how biotic and abiotic factors regulate the abundance and distribution of living entities, and how these organisms utilize, affect and compete for resources in the environment. However, it has been challenging to determine the number and types of important niche dimensions. By contrast, there is strong mechanistic theory and empirical evidence showing that the elemental composition of living organisms shapes ecological systems, from organismal physiology to food web structure. We propose an approach based on a multidimensional elemental view of the ecological niche. Visualizing the stoichiometric composition of individuals in multivariate space permits quantification of niche dimensions within and across species. This approach expands on previous elemental characterizations of plant niches, and adapts metrics of niche volume, overlap and nestedness previously used to quantify isotopic niches. We demonstrate the applicability of the multidimensional stoichiometric niche using data on carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus of terrestrial and freshwater communities composed by multiple trophic groups. First, we calculated the stoichiometric niche volumes occupied by terrestrial and freshwater food webs, by trophic groups, by individual species, and by individuals within species, which together give a measure of the extent of stoichiometric diversity within and across levels of organization. Then we evaluated complementarity between these stoichiometric niches, through metrics of overlap and nestedness. Our case study showed that vertebrates, invertebrates, and primary producers do not overlap in their stoichiometric niches, and that large areas of stoichiometric space are unoccupied by organisms. Within invertebrates, niche differences emerged between freshwater and terrestrial food webs, and between herbivores and non-herbivores (detritivores and predators). These niche differences were accompanied by changes in the covariance structure of the three elements, suggesting fundamental shifts in organismal physiology and/or structure. We also demonstrate the sensitivity of results to sample size, and suggest that representative sampling is better than rarefaction in characterizing the stoichiometric niche occupied by food webs. Overall, our approach demonstrates that stoichiometric traits provide a common currency to estimate the dimensionality of stoichiometric niches, and help reduce and rationalize the number of axis required to characterize communities.

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The Multidimensional Nutritional Niche

Cited by 135 publications

References 59 publications

Sex-specific macronutrient foraging strategies in a highly successful marine predator: the Australasian gannet

Sex-specific macronutrient foraging strategies in a highly successful marine predator: the Australasian gannet

Adaptation to new nutritional environments: larval performance, foraging decisions, and adult oviposition choices in Drosophila suzukii

The Multidimensional Stoichiometric Niche

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