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Moderate stoichiometric homeostasis in the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus: effects of diet and growth on C:N:P ratios

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Abstract

The influence of dietary elemental contents on consumer stoichiometry was investigated in selected and combined soft tissues (as a proxy of the whole individual) of the omnivorous sea urchin, Lytechinus variegatus. We raised urchins for 4 months in controlled seawater tanks using three different diets with different nutritional contents (from lower to higher: seagrass, red macroalgae, and a formulated diet). Individuals fed the different diets varied an average of 19.7, 19.4, and 38 % in C:N, C:P, and N:P ratios, respectively, with stronger temporal variability for C:P and N:P ratios across tissues and whole individuals. This resulted in homeostasis parameters (1/H) of −0.45, 0.09, and 0.38, respectively, for C:N, C:P, and N:P, indicative of homeostatic to weakly homeostatic organisms, at least for C:P and N:P ratios. Individuals fed the nutrient-rich formulated diet had higher growth rates (14 ± 0.83 g WW month−1) than those fed macroalgae or seagrass (9.3 ± 0.57 and 3.4 ± 0.33 g WW month−1, respectively). However, rapid body increments in more nutritional diets caused both a decrease in the %N and an increase in the %P of soft tissues, which resulted in significant but opposite effects of diet stoichiometry and growth in sea urchin C:N (R = −0.74 and R = 0.93, for diet and growth effects, respectively) and N:P ratios (R = 0.60 and R = −0.63, also, respectively, for diet and growth effects). Among potential compensatory mechanisms helping to preserve certain levels of homeostasis, ingestion rates (g WW diet per g WW of urchin) were higher for seagrass and macroalgae diets than for the nutrient-rich formulated diet. In contrast, absorption and growth efficiencies displayed significant negative associations with nutrient contents in diets and did not exhibit nutritional compensation. Overall, our results suggest that resource stoichiometry strongly determines the growth rate of individuals (R = 0.88, P < 0.01), and moderate variability in C:N:P ratios of sea urchins possibly arise from differences in the allocation of proteins and RNA to body components, similarly to what has been proposed by the growth rate hypothesis.

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Acknowledgements

P.P. was supported by a postdoctoral scholarship from the Ramón Areces Foundation, and partial support of this work was provided by NOAA MARFIN and NOAA Northern Gulf Institute grants to K.L.H. and a NOAA NCDDC grant to J.C. We are grateful to Dr. Ruth Carmichael for technical support with the acid wash technique, and to Professor Robert W. Sterner for advice on the interpretation of negative homeostasis coefficients. We thank the Tech Support team at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab for helping us maintain the appropriate physicochemical conditions in experimental tanks, and the staff of the Carmichael and Watts laboratories for supplying advice.

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  1. IRTA Aquatic Ecosystems, Ctra. Poble Nou km 5.5, 43540, Sant Carles de la Ràpita, Catalonia, Spain

    Patricia Prado

  2. Dauphin Island Sea Lab, 101 Bienville Blvd, Dauphin Island, 36528, USA

    Kenneth L. Heck Jr. & Just Cebrian

  3. Department of Marine Sciences, University of South Alabama, Mobile, 36688, USA

    Kenneth L. Heck Jr. & Just Cebrian

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  1. Patricia Prado
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Correspondence to Patricia Prado.

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Communicated by U. Sommer.

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Prado, P., Heck, K.L. & Cebrian, J. Moderate stoichiometric homeostasis in the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus: effects of diet and growth on C:N:P ratios. Mar Biol 161, 2869–2883 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-014-2552-1

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