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Deviation from strict homeostasis across multiple trophic levels in an invertebrate consumer assemblage exposed to high chronic phosphorus enrichment in a Neotropical stream

  • Physiological ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

A central tenet of ecological stoichiometry is that consumer elemental composition is relatively independent of food resource nutrient content. Although the P content of some invertebrate consumer taxa can increase as a consequence of P-enriched food resources, little is known about how ecosystem nutrient loading can affect the elemental composition of entire consumer assemblages. Here we examine the potential for P enrichment across invertebrate consumer assemblages in response to chronic high P loading. We measured elemental ratios in invertebrate consumers and basal food resources in a series of streams in lowland Costa Rica that range widely in P levels (2-135 μg l−1 soluble reactive P). Streams with high P levels receive natural long-term (over millennia) inputs of solute-rich groundwater while low-P streams do not receive these solute-rich groundwater inputs. P content of leaf litter and epilithon increased fourfold across the natural P gradient, exceeding basal resource P content values reported in the literature from other nutrient-rich streams. Invertebrate consumers from the high-P study stream were elevated twofold in P content across multiple taxonomic and functional feeding groups, including predators. Our results strongly support the hypothesis that elevated P content in consumers feeding on P-enriched food resources is a consequence of deviation from strict homeostasis. In contrast to prior studies, we found that between-stream variation in P content of a given taxon greatly exceeded within-stream variation among different taxa, suggesting that environment may be as important as phylogeny in controlling consumer stoichiometry. Relaxing the assumption of strict homeostasis presents challenges and opportunities for advancing our understanding of how nutrient limitation affects consumer growth. Moreover, our findings may provide a window into the future of how chronic anthropogenic nutrient loading can alter stoichiometric relationships in food webs.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Minor Hidalgo for assistance in the field and Tom Maddox for laboratory assistance. Thanks to Wyatt Cross for graciously sharing data, and to Andrew Mehring and Darold Batzer for statistical advice. Additionally, this manuscript was greatly improved by discussion with Jon Benstead, John Davis, Amy Rosemond, Becky Bixby, Susan Kilham, Steve Thomas, John Duff, Frank Triska, and the Pringle lab. Research funding was provided by the National Science Foundation (DEB 0545463; C. M. Pringle, F. J. Triska, and A. Ramírez). G. E. Small is supported in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Graduate Fellowship Program. EPA has not officially endorsed this publication and the views expressed herein may not reflect the views of the EPA. All experiments and sampling discussed here comply with both USA and Costa Rican regulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Gaston E. Small & Catherine M. Pringle

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  1. Gaston E. Small
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  2. Catherine M. Pringle
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Correspondence to Gaston E. Small.

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Communicated by Robert Hall.

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Small, G.E., Pringle, C.M. Deviation from strict homeostasis across multiple trophic levels in an invertebrate consumer assemblage exposed to high chronic phosphorus enrichment in a Neotropical stream. Oecologia 162, 581–590 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1489-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1489-4

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