Abstract
In natural heterogeneous environments, the fitness of animals is strongly influenced by the availability and composition of food. Food quantity and biochemical quality constraints may affect individual traits of consumers differently, mediating fitness response variation within and among species. Using a multifactorial experimental approach, we assessed population growth rate, fecundity, and survival of six strains of the two closely related freshwater rotifer species Brachionus calyciflorus sensu stricto and Brachionus fernandoi. Therefore, rotifers fed low and high concentrations of three algal species differing in their biochemical food quality. Additionally, we explored the potential of a single limiting biochemical nutrient to mediate variations in population growth response. Therefore, rotifers fed a sterol-free alga, which we supplemented with cholesterol-containing liposomes. Co-limitation by food quantity and biochemical food quality resulted in differences in population growth rates among strains, but not between species, although effects on fecundity and survival differed between species. The effect of cholesterol supplementation on population growth was strain-specific but not species-specific. We show that fitness response variations within and among species can be mediated by biochemical food quality. Dietary constraints thus may act as evolutionary drivers on physiological traits of consumers, which may have strong implications for various ecological interactions.
Highlights
IntroductionThe fitness of animals is strongly influenced by the availability and composition of food
In natural heterogeneous environments, the fitness of animals is strongly influenced by the availability and composition of food
Population growth rates of rotifers were affected by the type of food alga provided, characterized mainly by differences in their lipid composition, as well as by the food quantity, i.e. the carbon concentration (Table 1, Fig. 1a)
Summary
The fitness of animals is strongly influenced by the availability and composition of food. Food quantity and biochemical quality constraints may affect individual traits of consumers differently, mediating fitness response variation within and among species. Co-limitation by food quantity and biochemical food quality resulted in differences in population growth rates among strains, but not between species, effects on fecundity and survival differed between species. Food quantity and biochemical quality is highly variable, potentially resulting in dietary constraints consumers have to cope with[9,10]. This is especially relevant at the zooplankton-phytoplankton interface in aquatic systems, where many unselective filter feeders, primary consumers such as cladocerans or rotifers, strongly depend on the dietary nutrient supply. Linking resources to variations in performance components could help to identify drivers of niche differentiation and could improve predictions of ecological interactions and community dynamics
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