Can Fatty Acids Improve Our Ability to Trace Food Web Processes?

大多数初级生产者合成脂肪酸，这是许多动物饮食中必不可少的。必需脂肪酸的重要营养作用引起了农业、水产养殖和医学等多个领域的关注。必需多不饱和脂肪酸(“鱼油”)对人体健康的益处已成为各大媒体的头条新闻。尽管如此，对脂肪酸对群落和生态系统生态的潜在影响的研究相对较少。这个项目将利用一个水生食物网模型进行实验，以调查脂肪酸有助于我们理解食物网过程的两种潜在方式。首先，富含必需脂肪酸的食品应该促进消费者更高的生长和生理状况，从而支持更高的营养转移效率，而不是由低这些必需化合物的初级生产者主导的系统。其次，该项目将严格测试将脂肪酸用作食物网示踪剂的潜力。拟议的实验将同时量化必需脂肪酸对营养转移效率的影响，以及特定脂肪酸作为营养标记在三个营养级别上的潜在用途：从藻类初级生产者到草食动物，再到捕食者。该项目还将培养两名生态学和化学交界点的研究生。每年至少有一名来自代表不足的群体的本科生参加这个项目。

Most primary producers synthesize fatty acids, which are essential in the diet of many animals. Interest in the vital nutritional role of essential fatty acids has drawn the attention of diverse fields such as agriculture, aquaculture, and medical science. The human health benefits of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids ('fish oils') have made headlines in the popular press. Still, the potential influence of fatty acids on community and ecosystem ecology is relatively understudied. This project will conduct experiments utilizing a model aquatic food web to investigate two potential ways that fatty acids can contribute to our understanding of food web processes. First, food rich in essential fatty acids should promote higher growth and physiological condition of consumers and thus support a higher trophic transfer efficiency than a system dominated by primary producers low in these essential compounds. Second, this project will rigorously test the potential for using fatty acids as food web tracers. The proposed experiments will simultaneously quantify both the effects of essential fatty acids on trophic transfer efficiency and the potential utility of specific fatty acids as trophic markers across three trophic levels: from algal primary producers, to herbivores, and to predators. This project will also train two graduate students at the interface of ecology and chemistry. At least one undergraduate student from an underrepresented group will participate in this project each year.