Are the most plastic species the most abundant ones? An assessment using a fish assemblage
| Autor: | Natalia Zaldúa, Alejandro D’Anatro, Nicolás Vidal, Daniel E. Naya |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
Flexibility (anatomy)
Range (biology) Fish Biology Zoology lcsh:Medicine Context (language use) Biology Species Specificity Global Change Ecology medicine Assemblage (archaeology) Animal Physiology Animals Body Size Macroecology lcsh:Science Relative species abundance Community Structure Trophic level Phenotypic plasticity Multidisciplinary Ecology Ecology and Environmental Sciences lcsh:R Community structure Fishes Biology and Life Sciences Biodiversity Feeding Behavior Trophic Interactions medicine.anatomical_structure Community Ecology Isotope Labeling lcsh:Q Seasons Anatomy Digestive System Research Article |
| Zdroj: | PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 3, p e92446 (2014) PLoS ONE |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Popis: | Few studies have evaluated phenotypic plasticity at the community level, considering, for example, plastic responses in an entire species assemblage. In addition, none of these studies have addressed the relationship between phenotypic plasticity and community structure. Within this context, here we assessed the magnitude of seasonal changes in digestive traits (seasonal flexibility), and of changes during short-term fasting (flexibility during fasting), occurring in an entire fish assemblage, comprising ten species, four trophic levels, and a 37-fold range in body mass. In addition, we analyzed the relationship between estimates of digestive flexibility and three basic assemblage structure attributes, i.e., species trophic position, body size, and relative abundance. We found that: (1) Seasonal digestive flexibility was not related with species trophic position or with body size; (2) Digestive flexibility during fasting tended to be inversely correlated with body size, as expected from scaling relationships; (3) Digestive flexibility, both seasonal and during fasting, was positively correlated with species relative abundance. In conclusion, the present study identified two trends in digestive flexibility in relation to assemblage structure, which represents an encouraging departure point in the search of general patterns in phenotypic plasticity at the local community scale. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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