Journal
ECOLOGY
Volume 92, Issue 11, Pages 2085-2095Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1890/11-0395.1
Keywords
allometric scaling; ecological stoichiometry; nutrient uptake; resource competition; resource ratio theory; trait-based ecology
Categories
Funding
- James S. McDonnell Foundation
- National Science Foundation [OCE 09-28819, 08-45932]
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0845932, 0845825] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Ocean Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [0928819] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Trade-offs among functional traits are essential for explaining community structure and species coexistence. While two-way trade-offs have been investigated in many systems, higher-dimensional trade-offs remain largely hypothetical. Here we demonstrate a three-way trade-off between cell size and competitive abilities for nitrogen and phosphorus in marine and freshwater phytoplankton. At a given cell size, competitive abilities for N and P are negatively correlated, but as cell size increases, competitive ability decreases for both nutrients. The relative importance of the two trade-off axes appears to be environment dependent, suggesting different selective pressures: freshwater phytoplankton separate more along the N vs. P competition axis, and marine phytoplankton separate more along the nutrient competition vs. cell size axis. Our results demonstrate the multidimensional nature of key trade-offs among traits and suggest that such trade-offs may drive species interactions and structure ecological communities.
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