Nutritional Ecology of Lake Foodwebs

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Nutrition is widely acknowledged to be an important determinant of ecological dynamics in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Poor nutrition slows the growth and reproductive rates of consumers and alters many aspects of their physiology including metabolic rates and nutrient excretion. By way of these effects on individuals, poor food quality can constrain population growth rates and alter community interactions. Our understanding of this role of animal nutrition in ecology has largely been based on observations of available food and that of presumed metabolic needs of animal consumers. While aquatic consumers are known to vary in their nutrient content, how different dietary requirements affect ecological interactions has received little direct study. With this program, I will systematically study the metabolic responses of different aquatic consumers to nutrient limitation and determine how these responses vary among environments. These data will be used to develop novel indicators of nutritional stress, which will improve the study of animal nutrition and its role in foodwebs and ecosystems. In addition, I will examine how poor nutrition affects population dynamics of different aquatic consumers and their competitive interactions in multi-species communities. My research will demonstrate how food quality affects different aquatic consumer species and provide new quantitative approaches to its study. This work will aid others involved in animal culturing, such as aquaculture, by providing improved approaches in quantifying nutritional stress. In addition, my research will help explain differences between foodwebs that are observed in ecosystems of different productivity. By doing so, my research will deepen our understanding of nutritional ecology and its environmental controls.