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Lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates
Ecologists rely on various functional traits when investigating the functioning of ecological systems and its responses to global changes. Changing nutrient levels, for example, can affect taxa expressing different trait combinations in various ways, e.g., favoring small, fast‐growing species under...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9731919/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36514542 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9605 |
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author | Beck, Miriam Billoir, Elise Felten, Vincent Meyer, Albin Usseglio‐Polatera, Philippe Danger, Michael |
author_facet | Beck, Miriam Billoir, Elise Felten, Vincent Meyer, Albin Usseglio‐Polatera, Philippe Danger, Michael |
author_sort | Beck, Miriam |
collection | PubMed |
description | Ecologists rely on various functional traits when investigating the functioning of ecological systems and its responses to global changes. Changing nutrient levels, for example, can affect taxa expressing different trait combinations in various ways, e.g., favoring small, fast‐growing species under high phosphorus conditions. Stoichiometric traits, describing the elemental composition of organism body tissues, can help in understanding the mechanisms behind such functional shifts. So far, mainly life‐history traits have been related to body stoichiometry (e.g., the growth rate hypothesis) on a limited number of taxa, and there is little knowledge of the general link between stoichiometric and other functional traits on a taxonomically large scale. Here, we highlight this link in the freshwater macroinvertebrates, testing predictions from underlying trait‐based and Ecological Stoichiometry Theory (EST) in >200 taxa belonging to eight larger taxonomic groups. We applied a series of multivariate analyses on six of their stoichiometric traits (%C, %N, %P, C:N, C:P, and N:P) and 23 biological and ecological traits. We found significant relationships between stoichiometric traits and other types of traits when analyzing single‐trait and multi‐trait profiles. Patterns found within traits related to organism development or nutrient cycling were in line with our assumptions based on EST, e.g., traits describing predators were associated with high %N; traits suggesting a fast development (small maximum body size and high molting frequency) with high %P. Associations between ecological traits and body stoichiometry could be explained by the longitudinal stream gradient: Taxa preferring headwater habitats (i.e., high altitude, coarse substrate, and cold temperature) exhibited high %N and %P. Demonstrating the link between stoichiometric and both bio‐ and ecological traits on a large diversity of taxa underlines the potential of integrating stoichiometric traits into ecological analyses to improve our understanding of taxonomic and functional responses of communities—and ecosystems—to changing environmental conditions worldwide. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9731919 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97319192022-12-12 Lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates Beck, Miriam Billoir, Elise Felten, Vincent Meyer, Albin Usseglio‐Polatera, Philippe Danger, Michael Ecol Evol Research Articles Ecologists rely on various functional traits when investigating the functioning of ecological systems and its responses to global changes. Changing nutrient levels, for example, can affect taxa expressing different trait combinations in various ways, e.g., favoring small, fast‐growing species under high phosphorus conditions. Stoichiometric traits, describing the elemental composition of organism body tissues, can help in understanding the mechanisms behind such functional shifts. So far, mainly life‐history traits have been related to body stoichiometry (e.g., the growth rate hypothesis) on a limited number of taxa, and there is little knowledge of the general link between stoichiometric and other functional traits on a taxonomically large scale. Here, we highlight this link in the freshwater macroinvertebrates, testing predictions from underlying trait‐based and Ecological Stoichiometry Theory (EST) in >200 taxa belonging to eight larger taxonomic groups. We applied a series of multivariate analyses on six of their stoichiometric traits (%C, %N, %P, C:N, C:P, and N:P) and 23 biological and ecological traits. We found significant relationships between stoichiometric traits and other types of traits when analyzing single‐trait and multi‐trait profiles. Patterns found within traits related to organism development or nutrient cycling were in line with our assumptions based on EST, e.g., traits describing predators were associated with high %N; traits suggesting a fast development (small maximum body size and high molting frequency) with high %P. Associations between ecological traits and body stoichiometry could be explained by the longitudinal stream gradient: Taxa preferring headwater habitats (i.e., high altitude, coarse substrate, and cold temperature) exhibited high %N and %P. Demonstrating the link between stoichiometric and both bio‐ and ecological traits on a large diversity of taxa underlines the potential of integrating stoichiometric traits into ecological analyses to improve our understanding of taxonomic and functional responses of communities—and ecosystems—to changing environmental conditions worldwide. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-12-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9731919/ /pubmed/36514542 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9605 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Articles Beck, Miriam Billoir, Elise Felten, Vincent Meyer, Albin Usseglio‐Polatera, Philippe Danger, Michael Lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates |
title | Lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates |
title_full | Lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates |
title_fullStr | Lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates |
title_full_unstemmed | Lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates |
title_short | Lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates |
title_sort | lessons from linking bio‐ and ecological traits to stoichiometric traits in stream macroinvertebrates |
topic | Research Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9731919/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36514542 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9605 |
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