Description: Primary consumers in aquatic ecosystems are frequently limited by the quality of their food, often expressed as phytoplankton elemental and biochemical composition. However, the effects of these food quality indicators vary across studies, and we lack an integrated understanding of how elemental (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus) and biochemical (e.g. fatty acid, sterol) limitations interactively influence aquatic food webs. Here, we present the results of a meta-analysis using 〉100 experimental studies, confirming that limitation by N, P, fatty acids, and sterols all have significant negative effects on zooplankton performance. However, effects varied by grazer response (growth vs. reproduction), specific manipulation, and across taxa. While P limitation had greater effects on zooplankton growth than fatty acids overall, P and fatty acid limitation had equal effects on reproduction. Furthermore, we show that: nutrient co-limitation in zooplankton is strong; effects of essential fatty acid limitation depend on P availability; indirect effects induced by P limitation exceed direct effects of mineral P limitation; and effects of nutrient amendments using laboratory phytoplankton isolates exceed those using natural field communities. Our meta-analysis reconciles contrasting views about the role of various food quality indicators, and their interactions, for zooplankton performance, and provides a mechanistic understanding of trophic transfer in aquatic environments.

Description: Body size is a decisive functional trait in many organisms, especially for phytoplankton, which span several orders of magnitude in cell volume. Therefore, the analysis of size as a functional trait driving species’ performance has received wide attention in aquatic ecology, amended in recent decades by studies documenting changes in phytoplankton size in response to abiotic or biotic factors in the environment. We performed a systematic literature review to provide an overarching, partially quantitative synthesis of cell size as a driver and sentinel of phytoplankton ecology. We found consistent and significant allometric relationships between cell sizes and the functional performance of phytoplankton species (cellular rates of carbon fixation, respiration and exudation as well as resource affinities, uptake and content). Size scaling became weaker, absent or even negative when addressing C- or volume-specific rates or growth. C-specific photosynthesis and population growth rate peaked at intermediate cell sizes around 100 µm3. Additionally, we found a rich literature on sizes changing in response to warming, nutrients and pollutants. Whereas small cells tended to dominate under oligotrophic and warm conditions, there are a few notable exceptions, which indicates that other environmental or biotic constraints alter this general trend. Grazing seems a likely explanation, which we reviewed to understand both how size affects edibility and how size structure changes in response to grazing. Cell size also predisposes the strength and outcome of competitive interactions between algal species. Finally, we address size in a community context, where size-abundance scaling describes community composition and thereby the biodiversity in phytoplankton assemblages. We conclude that (a) size is a highly predictive trait for phytoplankton metabolism at the cellular scale, with less strong and nonlinear implications for growth and specific metabolism and (b) size structure is a highly suitable sentinel of phytoplankton responses to changing environments. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Description: The relevance of considering environmental variability for understanding and predicting biological responses to environmental changes has resulted in a recent surge in variability-focused ecological research. However, integration of findings that emerge across studies and identification of remaining knowledge gaps in aquatic ecosystems remain critical. Here, we address these aspects by: (1) summarizing relevant terms of variability research including the components (characteristics) of variability and key interactions when considering multiple environmental factors; (2) identifying conceptual frameworks for understanding the consequences of environmental variability in single and multifactorial scenarios; (3) highlighting challenges for bridging theoretical and experimental studies involving transitioning from simple to more complex scenarios; (4) proposing improved approaches to overcome current mismatches between theoretical predictions and experimental observations; and (5) providing a guide for designing integrated experiments across multiple scales, degrees of control, and complexity in light of their specific strengths and limitations.