Bridging factorial and gradient concepts of resource co-limitation: towards a general framework applied to consumers
- Organism growth can be limited either by a single resource or by multiple resources simultaneously (co-limitation). Efforts to characterise co-limitation have generated two influential approaches. One approach uses limitation scenarios of factorial growth assays to distinguish specific types of co-limitation; the other uses growth responses spanned over a continuous, multi-dimensional resource space to characterise different types of response surfaces. Both approaches have been useful in investigating particular aspects of co-limitation, but a synthesis is needed to stimulate development of this recent research area. We address this gap by integrating the two approaches, thereby presenting a more general framework of co-limitation. We found that various factorial (co-)limitation scenarios can emerge in different response surface types based on continuous availabilities of essential or substitutable resources. We tested our conceptual co-limitation framework on data sets of published and unpublished studies examining the limitation ofOrganism growth can be limited either by a single resource or by multiple resources simultaneously (co-limitation). Efforts to characterise co-limitation have generated two influential approaches. One approach uses limitation scenarios of factorial growth assays to distinguish specific types of co-limitation; the other uses growth responses spanned over a continuous, multi-dimensional resource space to characterise different types of response surfaces. Both approaches have been useful in investigating particular aspects of co-limitation, but a synthesis is needed to stimulate development of this recent research area. We address this gap by integrating the two approaches, thereby presenting a more general framework of co-limitation. We found that various factorial (co-)limitation scenarios can emerge in different response surface types based on continuous availabilities of essential or substitutable resources. We tested our conceptual co-limitation framework on data sets of published and unpublished studies examining the limitation of two herbivorous consumers in a two-dimensional resource space. The experimental data corroborate the predictions, suggesting a general applicability of our co-limitation framework to generalist consumers and potentially also to other organisms. The presented framework might give insight into mechanisms that underlie co-limitation responses and thus can be a seminal starting point for evaluating co-limitation patterns in experiments and nature.…
Author details: | Erik SperfeldORCiDGND, David Raubenheimer, Alexander WackerORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12554 |
ISSN: | 1461-023X |
ISSN: | 1461-0248 |
Title of parent work (English): | Ecology letters |
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell |
Place of publishing: | Hoboken |
Publication type: | Review |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2016 |
Publication year: | 2016 |
Release date: | 2020/03/22 |
Tag: | Consumer; essential nutrient; factorial design; food quality; growth rate; multi-nutrient limitation; nutritional ecology; performance landscape; substitutable resource; synergistic effect |
Volume: | 19 |
Number of pages: | 15 |
First page: | 201 |
Last Page: | 215 |
Funding institution: | German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) [SP1473/1-1, WA2445/8-1] |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Biochemie und Biologie |
Peer review: | Referiert |