A test of freshwater zooplankton essential fatty acid bioconversion potential and demographic costs at the planktonic plant-animal interface

必需脂肪酸（EFAs）只能由植物合成，并通过食物网积累到经济上重要的生物，如食用鱼。海洋和淡水浮游植物几乎是最重要的omega-3脂肪酸的唯一来源。EFAs在动物（包括人类）中具有广泛的生理作用，是所有动物饮食的重要组成部分。本提案将研究EFAs如何从浮游植物转移到草食性浮游动物，并最终转移到经济上重要的食用鱼类。本研究还将测试浮游动物是否可以通过生物转化相关脂肪酸来满足其对特定EFAs的营养需求，以及饮食中的omega - 6:omega - 3比例是否对这些转化有重要影响。这将通过给浮游动物喂食稳定同位素标记的EFAs，并在浮游动物和食用它们的鱼类体内跟踪标记脂肪酸的命运来实现。了解EFAs如何通过水生食物网转化和转移具有广泛的意义，因为这些分子对各种水生生物（如软体动物、甲壳类动物和鱼类）以及人类都至关重要。拟议的研究有可能为水生食物网相互作用、渔业生产和人类营养等广泛问题提供重要见解。

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are only synthesized by plants and are bioaccumulated through food webs to economically important organisms such as food fish. Marine and freshwater phytoplankton are the near exclusive source of the most critical omega-3 EFAs. EFAs have a wide range of physiological roles in animals (including humans) and are critical components of all animal diets. This proposal will examine how EFAs are transferred from phytoplankton to herbivorous zooplankton and finally to economically important food fish. This research will also test whether zooplankton can meet their nutritional demands for specific EFAs by bioconverting related fatty acids, as well as whether dietary omega6:omega3 ratios have an important impact on these conversions. This will be done by feeding zooplankton stable isotope labeled EFAs and following the fate of labeled fatty acids within the zooplankton and fish that consume them.Understanding how EFAs are transformed and transferred through aquatic food webs is of broad interest because these molecules are critical for a wide range of aquatic organisms (i.e. mollusks, crustaceans and fish) as well as humans. The proposed research has the potential to provide important insights for issues as wide ranging as aquatic food web interactions, fisheries production and human nutrition.