Nutritional quality modulates trait variability
Abstract
Background: Trait based functional and community ecology is en vogue. Most studies, however, ignore phenotypical diversity by characterizing entire species considering only trait means rather than their variability. Phenotypical variability may arise from genotypical differences or from ecological factors (e.g., nutritionally imbalanced diet), and these causes can usually not be separated in natural populations. We used a single genotype from a parthenogenetic model system (the oribatid mite Archegozetes longisetosus Aoki) to exclude genotypical differences. We investigated patterns of dietary (10 different food treatments) induced trait variation by measuring the response of nine different traits (relating to life history, morphology or exocrine gland chemistry). Results: Nutritional quality (approximated by carbon-to-nitrogen ratios) influenced all trait means and their variation. Some traits were more prone to variation than others. Furthermore, the "threshold elemental ratio"- rule of element stoichiometry applied to phenotypic trait variation. Imbalanced food (i.e. food not able to fully meet the nutritional demands of an animal) led to lower trait mean values, but also to a higher variation of traits. Conclusion: Imbalanced food led not only to lower trait value averages, but also to higher trait variability. There was a negative relationship between both parameters, indicating a direct link of both, average trait levels and trait variation to nutritional quality. Hence, variation of trait means may be a predictor for general food quality, and further indicate trade-offs in specific traits an animal must deal with while feeding on imbalanced diets.
Additional Information
© 2018 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Received: 20 September 2018; Accepted: 23 November 2018; Published: 5 December 2018. We thank Andrea Hilpert, Ursula Lebong, Christian Storm, Sonja Elberich, Danny Rothe and Tim Bergmann for experimental assistance as well as Nico Blüthgen for helpful discussion. AB was supported by the German Nation Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) and is a Simons Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF). This study was supported by the German Science Foundation (DFG; HE 4593/5-1). Availability of data and materials: All experimental data can be found in the Additional file 1. Authors' contributions: MH and AB designed the research; AB, RS and KW performed the experiment, AB performed chemical analyses; AB analyzed the data; AB and MH wrote the paper. All authors discussed and approved the final manuscript. Ethics approval and consent to participate: There are no legal restrictions on working with mites. Consent for publication: Not applicable. The authors declare no competing financial interests.Attached Files
Published - Brückner2018_Article_NutritionalQualityModulatesTra.pdf
Supplemental Material - 12983_2018_297_MOESM1_ESM.xlsx
Supplemental Material - 12983_2018_297_MOESM2_ESM.pdf
Supplemental Material - 12983_2018_297_MOESM3_ESM.pdf
Supplemental Material - 12983_2018_297_MOESM4_ESM.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC6282258
- Eprint ID
- 91504
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20181205-103638252
- Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
- Simons Foundation
- HE 4593/5-1
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- Created
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2018-12-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field