Stoichiometric Food Quality Research Articles

Mountain glaciers influence biogeochemical and ecological characteristics of high‐elevation lakes across the northern Rocky Mountains, USA

AbstractMountain glaciers are retreating rapidly due to climate change, leading to the formation of downstream lakes. However, little is known about the physical and biogeochemical conditions in these lakes across a range of glacial influence. We surveyed alpine lakes fed by both glacial and snowpack meltwaters and those fed by snowpack alone to compare nutrient concentrations, stoichiometry, water clarity, chlorophyll, and zooplankton communities. Total phosphorus (TP) and soluble reactive phosphorus were two times higher in glacial lakes than in non‐glacial lakes, while nitrate concentrations were three times higher. However, organic carbon concentrations in glacial lakes were two times lower than in non‐glacial lakes. The carbon‐to‐phosphorus ratio and the nitrogen‐to‐phosphorus ratio of lake seston increased with water clarity in glacial lakes, suggesting that turbidity from glacial flour increases light limitation and increases stoichiometric food quality for zooplankton in newly formed lakes. However, chlorophyll a concentrations did not differ between lake types. Through structural equation modeling, we found that glaciers exhibit a bidirectional association with nitrate and TP concentrations, perhaps mediated through landscape vegetation and lake clarity. Zooplankton communities in high‐turbidity glacial lakes were largely composed of cyclopoid copepods and rotifers (i.e., non‐filter feeders), while non‐glacial lakes tended to be dominated by calanoid copepods and cladocerans (i.e., filter feeders). Our results show that glacier‐influenced lakes have biogeochemical and ecological characteristics distinct from snow‐fed mountain lakes. Sustained studies are needed to assess the dynamics of these unique features as the influence of the alpine cryosphere fades under ongoing climate change.

From adverse to beneficial: Contrasting dietary effects of freshwater mixotrophs on zooplankton

Abstract The importance of mixotrophic algae as key bacterivores in microbial food webs is increasingly acknowledged, but their effects on the next trophic level remain poorly understood. Their high stoichiometric food quality is contrasted by anti‐grazing strategies. We tested the quality of freshwater mixotrophs as prey for zooplankton, using four non‐colonial chrysophyte species and a cryptophyte as a high quality reference food. We (1) analyzed the stoichiometric and biochemical (fatty acid) composition of the mixotrophs, and (2) quantified their dietary effects on Daphnia longispina survival. Survival of D. longispina significantly depended on the identity of species provided as food, ranging from higher to lower as compared to starvation. This was not reflected in differences in cellular stoichiometry or fatty acid profiles of the mixotrophs. We suggest that toxicity may be the driver for the observed differences. Generalization of the dietary effects of mixotrophic chrysophytes does not appear straightforward. Besides fundamental species‐specific differences, potential toxic effects may vary depending on environmental cues or physiological strategies. Notably in our study, Ochromonas tuberculata, a species previously reported to be deleterious, turned out to be a beneficial food source in terms of enabling high survival of D. longispina. We challenge the generality of the assumption that chrysophytes are of low value as food for zooplankton. We recommend that future studies test how environmental conditions and physiological strategies shape the quality of mixotrophs as food for consumers at higher trophic levels, specifically focusing on effects of dietary toxicity.

Interactive effects of water temperature and stoichiometric food quality on Daphnia pulicaria

Abstract While water temperatures vary widely within and among lakes, most studies of food quality on lake zooplankton have been conducted across a relatively narrow temperature range. Given the strong links between food, temperature, and metabolism, there is a need to assess the interactive effects of water temperature and food quality on the life history and population growth rates of zooplankton. This study examined Daphnia pulicaria life history and population growth rates exposed to variable food P content (molar C:P ratios c. 100–900) across a range of temperatures (c. 12–30°C). Mass‐specific growth rate experiments were conducted for a period of 5 days, while Daphnia reproduction and survival metrics were measured for 28 days. Mass‐specific growth rates of D. pulicaria varied with food‐quality but the size of this effect depended on temperature. We observed a thermal limit of 28°C above which mortality reached 100%, while survival between 25 and 28°C was substantially reduced, after c. 20 days, in animals consuming food C:P ratios of 100. Poorer quality food (C:P 300–700) altered these temperature effects and increased the probability of survival in animals exposed to 25–28°C temperatures. When we examined the population‐level effects of these treatments, we found a rise in intrinsic rate with temperature with higher quality food, driven by an earlier age of first reproduction and shorter generation time. However, this increased population growth with temperature was not observed in animals consuming food with low P content. Altogether, we found strong interactive effects of temperature and food quality on Daphnia, with especially dynamic changes seen among differentially nourished animals raised in water above 25°C. These results demonstrate the complex non‐additive interactions of food quality and temperature responses in freshwater invertebrates and indicate that the effects of warming temperatures on zooplankton communities must be considered within the context of the animals’ nutrition and metabolism if monitoring and mitigation efforts are to be successful.

Fear and food: Effects of predator‐derived chemical cues and stoichiometric food quality onDaphnia

AbstractWhile resource quality and predator‐derived chemical cues can each have profound effects on zooplankton populations and their function in ecosystems, the strength and direction of their interactive effects remain unclear. We conducted laboratory experiments to evaluate how stoichiometric food quality (i.e., algal carbon [C] : phosphorus [P] ratios) affects responses of the zooplankter,Daphnia pulicaria,to predator‐derived chemical cues. We compared growth rates, body P content, metabolic rates, life‐history shifts, and survival of differentially P‐nourishedDaphniain the presence and absence of chemical cues derived from fish predators. We found effects of predator cues and/or stoichiometric food quality on all measured traits ofDaphnia. Exposure to fish cues led to reduced growth and increased metabolic rates but had little effect on the body %P content ofDaphnia. Elevated algal C : P ratios reduced growth and body %P and increased mass‐specific respiration rates. While most of the effects of predator cues and algal C : P ratios ofDaphniawere non‐interactive, reduced survival and relatedly reduced population growth rates that resulted from P‐poor food were amplified in the presence of predator‐derived cues. Our results demonstrate that stoichiometric food quality interacts with antipredator responses ofDaphnia, but these effects are largely trait dependent and appear connected to animal life‐history evolution. Given the ubiquity of predators and P‐poor food in lake ecosystems, our results highlight the importance of the interactive responses of animals to predator cues and poor nutrition.

Compensatory grazing by Daphnia generates a trade‐off between top‐down and bottom‐up effects across phytoplankton taxa

AbstractTrade‐offs among traits that shape different components of fitness determine the potential for species to coexist in communities and the regulation of ecosystem productivity by consumers vs. resources. We compared functional and structural traits of 14 species of freshwater phytoplankton to test the influence of life history (exponential growth rate, r, and asymptotic density, K), cell volume, cellular fatty acid (FA) biochemistry, and stoichiometry (cellular C:N and C:P ratios) on grazing and growth rate of Daphnia consumers. Grazers exerted the strongest top‐down effects on algae with the highest C:N and C:P, and lower levels of FA unsaturation. In contrast, the grazer's growth rate was most associated with phytoplankton species’ FA unsaturation and chain length. Different traits were related to grazing rate and trophic transfer efficiency, and as a result, the grazing rate on a particular phytoplankton taxon was unrelated to the grazers’ growth rate. The best nutrient competitors (those with high C:N, C:P, and K, which previous experiments showed had lower minimum requirements for nutrients) were most heavily affected by grazing, but did not contribute the most to grazer growth. Our results indicate that Daphnia increase their food consumption rate in order to compensate for low stoichiometric food quality. Strong competitors with low nutrient demands may therefore be subject to the most intense grazing by individual consumers but not support greater production of higher trophic levels.

High stoichiometric food quality increases moulting organism vulnerability to pollutant impacts: An experimental test with Gammarus fossarum (Crustacea: Amphipoda)

Headwater organisms are most often simultaneously faced with multiple stressors such as low resource quality and pollutants. Higher food quality has been hypothesized to enhance the tolerance of organisms to pollutants, but the interactive effects of food quality and pollutants on species and ecosystems remain poorly studied. To better understand these interactive effects, we experimentally manipulated the phosphorus (P) content of two leaf litters with contrasted carbon quality (alder and maple). During four weeks, individuals of the detritivorous crustacean Gammarus fossarum were exposed to low levels of cadmium ([Cd] = 0, 0.35 or 0.70 μg L−1) while being fed with one of the leaf P treatments. When organisms were not exposed to Cd, their high survival rate was more driven by the carbon quality of the resource (litter species) than by its stoichiometric quality. In contrast, their number of moults and growth rates were primarily increased by the P content of resources. When exposed to Cd, G. fossarum survival rate was reduced, but this effect was largely magnified by a higher P level in resources. Our results showed that despite positive effects of resource stoichiometric quality on organism life history traits (growth, survival), a resource of high stoichiometric quality might be detrimental for organisms exposed to low and environmentally realistic levels of pollutants. Two non-exclusive hypotheses are proposed to explain these results. First, organisms fed on the highest quality resource exhibited the highest moulting frequencies (moults being the most critical life cycle step of arthropods), which could have rendered them more sensitive to pollutants. Secondly, the metabolism of organisms fed on higher quality resources was potentially enhanced, increasing the uptake of dissolved Cd by gammarids. This study suggests that species sensitivity to pollutants might be underestimated in ecosystems facing both nutrient constraint and pollutants.

Variable toxicity of silver nanoparticles to Daphnia magna: effects of algal particles and animal nutrition.

Aquatic environments vary widely in aspects other than their physicochemical properties that could alter the toxicity of novel contaminants. One factor that could affect chemical toxicity to aquatic consumers is their nutritional environment as it can strongly affect their physiology and life history. Nutrition has the potential to alter an organism's response to the toxin or how the toxin interacts with the consumer through its food. Here we determined how growth and survival responses of Daphnia to an emerging contaminant, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), are affected by the presence of food and its stoichiometric food quality. We used a series of survival tests, each slightly modified, to determine whether variable toxicity in different nutritional environments resulted from algal sequestration of AgNPs in a nontoxic form or from changes to the nutritional status of the test animals. We found that the presence of algae, of good or poor quality, reduced the toxicity of AgNPs on animal growth and survival. However, the decrease in AgNP toxicity was greater for animals consuming P-rich compared to P-poor food. We found evidence that this effect of food quality was due to greater algal uptake of AgNPs by P-rich than by P-stressed algae. However, we also found animal nutrition, in the absence of algal AgNP binding, could affect toxicity with P-nourished animals surviving slightly better when exposed to AgNPs compared to their P-stressed counterparts. Our results show an important role for algal particles and their P content in determining the toxicity of AgNPs in natural waters primarily due to their binding and uptake abilities and, less so, to their effects on animal nutrition.

Does the stoichiometric carbon:phosphorus knife edge apply for predaceous copepods?

Recent work has indicated that stoichiometric food quality in terms of the carbon:phosphorus (C:P) ratio affects consumers whether the imbalance involves a deficit or an excess of nutrients; hence, organisms exist on a "stoichiometric knife edge". While previous studies have focused primarily on autotroph-herbivore trophic transfer, nutritional imbalances may also affect the interactions between species at higher trophic levels. Since the foods of carnivores are normally stoichiometrically similar to the body compositions of those carnivores, they may be more severely affected than herbivores if imbalances become pronounced. We analysed the response of the predatory copepod Parabroteas sarsi to monospecific diet treatments consisting of high and low C:P prey items. These dietary treatments strongly affected the predator's elemental composition and growth, although prey selection, excretion, egestion, and respiration rates were not affected. We suggest that, due to their low threshold elemental ratio and a narrow C:P stoichiometric knife edge, these predators are highly vulnerable to stoichiometric imbalances, whether an excess or a deficit of nutrients is involved. Our results demonstrating this high sensitivity to prey C:P ratio show that the stoichiometric knife edge may apply to not only herbivores but also higher trophic levels. Thus, predators such as P. sarsi, with a much narrower range of food quality, may also be strongly affected by fluctuations in the quality of their prey, with negative consequences for their secondary production.

Glacier melting and stoichiometric implications for lake community structure: zooplankton species distributions across a natural light gradient

Glaciers around the globe are melting rapidly, threatening the receiving environments of the world's fresh water reservoirs with significant changes. The meltwater, carried by rivers, contains large amounts of suspended sediment particles, producing longitudinal gradients in the receiving lakes. These gradients may result in changes in the light:nutrient ratio that affect grazer performance by altering elemental food quality. Thus, glacial melting may induce a shift in the phytoplankton carbon:nutrient ratio and hence influence the dominance of herbivorous zooplankton through stoichiometric mechanisms. To test this hypothesis, we combined field and experimental data, taking advantage of a natural light intensity gradient caused by glacial clay input in a deep oligotrophic Patagonian lake. Across this gradient, we evaluated the abundances of two consumer taxa with different phosphorus requirements, the copepod Boeckella gracilipes and the cladoceran Daphnia commutata, using a six-station transect along the lake. We found significant differences in light:nutrient ratio and stoichiometric food quality of the seston, together with a switch from dominance of P-rich Daphnia in low carbon:nutrient stations to dominance of low-P copepods in high carbon:nutrient stations. The laboratory experiments confirmed that the difference in the carbon:nutrient ratio across the gradient is sufficient to impair Daphnia growth. The overall patterns are consistent with our prediction that shifts in the environmental light:nutrient ratio as a result of glacial melting would contribute to shifts in the dominance of stoichiometrically contrasting taxa in consumer guilds.

Antibiotics affect the growth responses of Daphnia magna to poor food quality

We tested the hypothesis that exposure to antibiotics alters the growth and reproductive responses of Daphnia magna to changing stoichiometric food quality. To do so, we measured growth and reproduction of differentially P-nourished Daphnia in the presence and absence of sublethal concentrations of antibiotics. We found that exposure to an antibiotic cocktail significantly reduced an index of the microbial load of Daphnia and altered its growth responses to changing dietary P-content. Growth rates of Daphnia consuming the most P-rich and P-poor food increased with antibiotic exposure but were negatively or not affected in animals eating mildly to moderately P-limiting food. Similar effects were found in a subsequent experiment where daphnid neonates were exposed to natural bacterial communities prior to receiving antibiotics and being fed different food C:P ratios. In contrast, antibiotic effects on Daphnia reproduction were either not detected (number and size of broods) or were relatively minor (day of first reproduction). We also found no evidence that gut flora provides defense against pathogenic bacterial infection; instead, infection rates in Daphnia by a bacterial microparasite, Pasteuria ramosa, decreased in animals that had experienced prior antibiotic exposure. Our results demonstrate that antibiotic exposure reduced the microbial load and altered growth rates of an important zooplankton herbivore. Given the mediating role of animal’s food C:P ratio, our results show that interactions between Daphnia and its microbial symbionts vary in strength and nature partly with the host’s nutritional state.

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is associated with elevated phosphorus limitation of lake zooplankton

Here, we present data that for the first time suggests that the effects of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on nutrient limitation extend into the food web. We used a novel and sensitive assay for an enzyme that is over-expressed in animals growing under dietary phosphorus (P) deficiency (alkaline phosphatase activity, APA) to assess the nutritional status of major crustacean zooplankton taxa in lakes across a gradient of atmospheric N deposition in Norway. Lakes receiving high N deposition had suspended organic matter (seston) with significantly elevated carbon:P and N:P ratios, indicative of amplified phytoplankton P limitation. This P limitation appeared to be transferred up the food chain, as the cosmopolitan seston-feeding zooplankton taxa Daphnia and Holopedium had significantly increased APA. These results indicate that N deposition can impair the efficiency of trophic interactions by accentuating stoichiometric food quality constraints in lake food webs.

A test of stoichiometry across six Irish lakes of low-moderate nutrient status and contrasting hardness

The importance of stoichiometric food quality constraints in influencing zooplankton community structure and distribution in six lakes with categorical variations in alkalinity were investigated by assessing the relationship between seston nutrient content, bulk zooplankton nutrient content and the abundance of individual zooplankton taxa. Stoichiometric processes were viewed in the context of the overall biotic and abiotic environment. Distinct differences in the distribution of certain zooplankton taxa between high- and low-alkalinity lakes were observed and size-distribution analyses suggested that the size-selective foraging behaviour of fish may have been responsible for determining seasonal variation in community structure. Nevertheless, a positive correlation was observed between bulk zooplankton C:P content and bulk seston C:P content, and a negative relationship between Daphnia abundance and the seston C:P and N:P ratios, which suggests that with declining food P content, high-P taxa are replaced by low-P taxa. This would suggest that stoichiometric food quality constraints are in part involved in structuring the zooplankton community of the six lakes of this study. Although classic models of lake trophic structure based on carbon input (bottom-up) and predation (top-down) may provide explanations for broad community patterns, stoichiometry may provide an alternative or additional mechanism for understanding the details of zooplankton species composition and dynamics.

Genetically‐based trade‐offs in response to stoichiometric food quality influence competition in a keystone aquatic herbivore

The genetic basis of organism response to stoichiometric mismatches between environmental availability and somatic demand is still poorly understood. This study reports a consistent genotype x environment interaction related to phosphorus : carbon availability to Daphnia. In multiple pairs of Daphnia pulicaria clones, genetic variation at the phosphoglucose isomerase (Pgi) locus indicated that Pgi-heterozygotes out competed Pgi-homozygotes under high P : C conditions, whereas the opposite outcome was observed under low P : C conditions. Estimates of phosphorus use efficiency indicated that homozygotes were significantly more efficient. However, homozygotes were comparatively less homeostatic. We hypothesize that lower specific activity of Pgi from homozygotes, which results in lowered energetic efficiency during the second glycolytic step, may underlie the competitive advantage enjoyed by homozygotes under low P : C (i.e. excess C) conditions. Our results show that analysing stoichiometric mismatches between diet and consumer should advance our quest for a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms driving genotype-environment interactions.

Light and spectral properties as determinants of C:N:P-ratios in phytoplankton

Abstract Light is a major determinant not only for carbon (C)-fixation in autotrophs, but also for the cellular proportions of major elements like C, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). High intensities of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) increase C:P-ratios in experiments with arctic marine and freshwater phytoplankton species. While high levels of PAR promote high autotrophic productivity, the increased C:P may invoke a “paradox of enrichment” effect since this means lower stoichiometric food quality for herbivores. In contrast, exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) gave reduced cellular C:P-ratios (and N:P) in phytoplankton. This was partly owing to a strong reduction in C-fixation under UVR, but also due to enhanced uptake of P, presumably in response to increased demands for nucleotide repair under UVR stress. The net outcome of these opposing effects will depend on optical properties and mixing depth in the water column. These stoichiometric responses could cause deviations from Redfield ratio in phytoplankton as well as affecting biogeochemical cycling and trophic transfer efficiency in aquatic food-webs.

Coupling of growth rate and body stoichiometry in Daphnia: a role for maintenance processes?

Summary1. The growth rate hypothesis predicts positive relationships among growth rate (μ), body RNA (%RNA of dry mass) and body P (%P of dry mass) contents.2. We tested this within‐ and across‐species by growing five species/clones of Daphnia (Daphnia magna, Daphnia pulex, Daphnia galeata and two isolates of Daphnia pulicaria) with different combinations of food quantity and stoichiometric food quality.3. Within each species, positive correlations among μ, %RNA and %P were seen and across species there was a strong association between%RNA and %P, consistent with the growth rate hypothesis. However, coupling of growth to %RNA and to %P differed for different species. In particular, the %RNA–μ and %P–μ relationships had similar slopes but considerably different y‐intercepts (i.e.%P or %RNA at zero growth), with D. pulicaria and D. galeata having higher intercepts than D. magna and especially D. pulex. As a result of these displacements, the relative rankings of the species on the basis of %P and %RNA did not correspond to their rankings based on μ.4. These findings suggest that within a narrow clade (e.g. the daphnids), interspecific differences in body P content may reflect not growth rate‐related RNA allocation but instead the amount of RNA required for support of maintenance processes.

Inedible Producers in Food Webs: Controls on Stoichiometric Food Quality and Composition of Grazers

Ecological stoichiometry and food web theories focus on distinct mechanisms that shape communities. These mechanisms, however, likely interact in ways that neither theory alone addresses. To illustrate, we show how a model that tracks flow of energy and nutrients through two producers and two grazers reveals two indirect, interrelated roles for "neutrally inedible" producers. First, inedible producers can exert controls over the nutrient content of edible producers and indirectly influence whether grazers are nutrient or energy limited. Second, through these controls, inedible producers can shape community assembly by excluding grazers that are weak competitors for nutrients contained in edible producers. A mesocosm experiment revealed patterns consistent with both predictions: high abundances of inedible algae were accompanied by low phosphorus contents of edible algae and low abundances of the grazer Daphnia. Both lines of inference suggest that interactions between stoichiometry and plant heterogeneity may shape plankton communities.

Stoichiometric mismatch between littoral invertebrates and their periphyton food

Abstract: Ecological stoichiometry is considered a key concept in understanding con-straints in energy transfer at the plant-herbivore interface. However, whether this con-cept is relevant for benthic freshwater ecosystems is not fully known. Therefore, afield survey was conducted in 2003 during the growing season in the littoral zone ofLake Constance, a large pre-alpine lake in central Europe. The aim was to assess tem-poral variation in the elemental stoichiometric composition in both herbivorous macro-invertebrates and their food resource, the periphyton in two different lakes. The peri-phyton showed large temporal and spatial variation in carbon, nitrogen, and phospho-rus content, with particularly high molar C:P ratios of up to 1225:1. Periphyton C:Pand C:N ratios were often high and constantly above the Redfield ratio that is consid-ered optimal for autotrophic growth. In contrast to the pronounced fluctuations in thenutrient ratios of their food resource, the herbivorous macroinvertebrates showed onlyvery little variation in their nutrient ratios, which indicated that they are homeostatic,i.e., physiologically restricted to a comparatively narrow range of C:P and C:N ratios.Distinct species-specific C : P and C : N ratios were found for different taxonomicgroups of macroinvertebrates, which indicated different requirements of optimal die-tary C:P and C:N ratios and which might influence the ability of the taxa to competefor limiting elemental nutrients. Considering the temporally very high C:P and C:Nratios of the periphytic resource and the very low ratios of the consumer body tissue,this stoichiometric mismatch is likely to constrain growth and reproduction of these lit-toral invertebrates. Therefore, the concept of stoichiometric food quality limitationmight also be applicable to the littoral food web in lakes.Key words: benthos, C:N:P ratio, ecological stoichiometry, herbivory, homeostasis,lake littoral, macroinvertebrates, mismatch, nutrient ratios, phosphorus.

Inedible Producers in Food Webs: Controls on Stoichiometric Food Quality and Composition of Grazers

Inedible Producers in Food Webs: Controls on Stoichiometric Food Quality and Composition of Grazers

Mixotrophic versus photoautotrophic specialist algae as food for zooplankton: The light : nutrient hypothesis might not hold for mixotrophs

We reared mixotrophic (Ochromonas tuberculata and Cryptomonas sp.) and photoautotrophic specialist algae (Scenedesmus obliquus) at different light : phosphorus supplies and compared their effects as food for zooplankton (Daphnia magna). According to the light : nutrient hypothesis (LNH), biomass and nutrient stoichiometry of phototrophic specialists depend strongly on light : phosphorus supplies. If this is true, herbivore growth and fecundity should be limited by food quantity at low light intensities and by stoichiometric food quality at high light intensities. In turn, phosphorus fertilization should cause a transition from limitation by food quality to limitation by food quantity. In contrast to the LNH, biomass and nutrient stoichiometry of mixotrophs were almost unaffected by alterations in the supply of light and dissolved nutrients. Bacterial counts indicate that mixotrophs compensated for light or phosphorus deficiency by heterotrophic nutrition. Compared to phototrophic specialists, a diet of Cryptomonas sp. therefore enabled a similar or higher and more stable secondary production at most light : nutrient supplies. O. tuberculata, however, appeared to be toxic. Our results indicate that mixotrophs might have a balancing effect on variations in transfer efficiency caused by perturbations to light and nutrient supplies.

Genotype × environment interactions, stoichiometric food quality effects, and clonal coexistence in Daphnia pulex

The role of stoichiometric food quality in influencing genotype coexistence and competitive interactions between clones of the freshwater microcrustacean, Daphnia pulex, was examined in controlled laboratory microcosm experiments. Two genetically distinct clones of D. pulex, which show variation in their ribosomal rDNA structure, as well as differences in a number of previously characterized growth-rate-related features (i.e., life-history features), were allowed to compete in two different arenas: (1) batch cultures differing in algal food quality (i.e., high vs. low carbon:phosphorus (C:P ratio) in the green alga, Scenedesmus acutus); (2) continuous flow microcosms receiving different light levels (i.e., photosynthetically active radiation) that affected algal C:P ratios. In experiment 1, a clear genotype x environment interaction was determined with clone 1 out-competing clone 2 under high nutrient (i.e., low food C:P) conditions, while the exact opposite pattern was observed under low nutrient (i.e., high C:P) conditions. In experiment 2, clone 1 dominated over clone 2 under high light (higher C:P) conditions, but clonal coexistence was observed under low light (low C:P) conditions. These results indicate that food (nutrient) quality effects (hitherto an often overlooked factor) may play a role in microevolutionary (genotypic) responses to changing stoichiometric conditions in natural populations.