Understanding the stoichiometric limitation of herbivore growth: the importance of feeding and assimilation flexibilities

Urabe, Jotaro; Shimizu, Yuichiro; Yamaguchi, Tomohiro

doi:10.1111/ele.12882

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…To minimize this isotopic routing effect on the TP estimation of animals, some mixing model packages (e.g., SIAR) consider the stoichiometric imbalance among diets by weighting the estimate with the elemental concentration of each resource (e.g., Par-nell et al 2010). However, the elemental concentration is not necessarily proportional to consumers' growth because their AE may be adjusted depending on food quality (Urabe et al 2018). Furthermore, most researchers separately use bulk Prey 2 (TP = 2) Fig.…”

Section: Source Mixing Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of compound‐specific nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids in trophic ecology: assumptions, applications, and implications

Ishikawa

2018

Ecological Research

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Knowledge of the diet source and trophic position of organisms is fundamental in food web science. Since the 1980s, stable isotopes of light elements such as 13 C and 15 N have provided unique information on the food web structure in a variety of ecosystems. More recently, novel isotope tools such as stable isotopes of heavy elements, radioisotopes, and compound-specific isotope analysis, have been examined by researchers. Here I reviewed the use of compound-specific nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA) as a useful dietary tracer in food web ecology. Its three key features-(1) offsetting against isotopic variation; (2) universality of the trophic discrimination factor; and (3) sensitivity to source mixing-were compared with conventional isotope analysis for the bulk tissue of organisms. These three advantages of CSIA-AA will allow future researchers to (1) estimate the integrated trophic position (iTP) of animal communities; (2) infer trophic transfer efficiency (TTE) in food webs; and (3) quantify contributions from different resources to animals, all of which are crucial for understanding the relationship between biodiversity and multitrophic ecosystem functioning. Further development of trophic ecology will be facilitated by both methodological refinement of CSIA-AA and its application to a wider range of organisms, food webs, and ecosystems.

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Section: Source Mixing Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of compound‐specific nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids in trophic ecology: assumptions, applications, and implications

Ishikawa

2018

Ecological Research

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“…However, Meunier et al (2014) introduced a more physiology-oriented view on the concept and questioned the linearity of this response. Indeed, homeostasis is maintained by the simultaneous action of multiple regulating processes (Frost et al 2005;He & Wang 2008;Hessen et al 2013), such as feeding (Suzuki-Ohno et al 2012;Urabe et al 2018), assimilation (DeMott et al 1998Urabe et al 2018), allocation (Urabe & Sterner 2001;Frost et al 2010), excretion (Frost et al 2004(Frost et al , 2005 and respiration (Jensen et al 2006;Hessen & Anderson 2008). Variation in the efficiency of these processes along a stoichiometric food gradient is very likely and is expected to result in a variable homeostatic strength across such gradient.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbivore consumers face different challenges along opposite sides of the stoichiometric knife‐edge

Zhou

Declerck

2019

Ecology Letters

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Anthropogenic activities have reshaped the relative supply rates of essential elements to organisms. Recent studies suggested that consumer performance is strongly reduced by food that is either very high or very low in relative phosphorus content. However, the generality of such ‘stoichiometric knife‐edge’ and its underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We studied the response of a planktonic rotifer to a 10‐fold food carbon : phosphorus (C : P) gradient and confirmed the existence of the stoichiometric knife‐edge. Interestingly, we observed a complete homeostatic breakdown associated with strong growth reductions at high food C : P. In contrast, at low food C : P, animals maintained homeostasis despite pronounced performance reductions. Our results suggest that the mechanisms underlying adverse effects of stoichiometric imbalance are determined by both the identity of elements that are limiting and those that are present in excess. Negative effects of excess P reveal an additional way of how eutrophication may affect consumers.

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“…This implies that (1) assimilation efficiencies vary with prey quantity and quality (Montagnes and Fenton ) and (2) the optimization of assimilation instead of ingestion rates determines the feeding behavior of consumers (Jumars , Urabe et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More advanced predator-prey models demonstrated the influence of gut transition times (time period food particles are kept in consumers' gut) on nutrient assimilation (Mitra and Flynn 2007) and revealed a nonlinear relationship between ingestion and assimilation rates (Darchambeau 2005, Fenton et al 2010). This implies that (1) assimilation efficiencies vary with prey quantity and quality (Montagnes and Fenton 2012) and (2) the optimization of assimilation instead of ingestion rates determines the feeding behavior of consumers (Jumars 2000a, Urabe et al 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food quantity–quality interactions and their impact on consumer behavior and trophic transfer

Burian

Nielsen

Winder

2019

Ecological Monographs

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Food quantity–quality interactions determine growth rates and reproductive success of consumers and thereby regulate community dynamics and food web structure. Predator–prey models that shape our conceptual understanding of foraging ecology typically rely on the parametrization of fixed consumer responses to either food quantity or food quality. In nature, however, consumers optimize their fitness by responding simultaneously to changes in food quantity and quality. Therefore, we assessed consumer responses to changing food environments using a new fitness optimization model that accounted for food quality–quantity interactions to better capture the regulatory flexibility of consumers. Our simulations demonstrated that the impact of food quality on important consumer traits can be altered or even reversed by changes in food quality. Low food quality, for example, affected feeding rates negatively at low food concentrations but triggered surplus feeding at high food concentrations. The scope of surplus feeding was thereby mainly dependent on dynamics of nutrient digestion and in contrast to previous assumptions, energy costs of feeding played a minor role. Further, the regulation of digestive enzyme production, a crucial factor determining assimilation efficiencies, was strongly dependent on whether nonessential or essential nutrients were limiting growth. Consequently, not only the degree but also the type of nutrient limitation mediated the impact of the food environment on consumers’ fitness. At the community level, food quality was key in shaping predator–prey biomass ratios. High food qualities resulted in top‐heavy systems with larger consumer than prey biomass. Decreases of prey digestibility or the availability of essential nutrients, however, triggered a switch from inverted to classical pyramid shapes of bi‐trophic systems. The impact of food quantity on trophic transfer and emerging structural ecosystem properties thus critically hinges on behavioral and physiological responses of consumers. The inclusion of the regulatory flexibility of consumers is therefore an essential next step to improve predator–prey models and our conceptual understanding of trophic interactions.

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Understanding the stoichiometric limitation of herbivore growth: the importance of feeding and assimilation flexibilities

Cited by 39 publications

References 56 publications

Use of compound‐specific nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids in trophic ecology: assumptions, applications, and implications

Use of compound‐specific nitrogen isotope analysis of amino acids in trophic ecology: assumptions, applications, and implications

Herbivore consumers face different challenges along opposite sides of the stoichiometric knife‐edge

Food quantity–quality interactions and their impact on consumer behavior and trophic transfer

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