Changes in N:P Supply Ratios Affect the Ecological Stoichiometry of a Toxic Cyanobacterium and Its Fungal Parasite.

ABSTRACT: Human activities have dramatically altered nutrient fluxes from the landscape into receiving waters. As a result, not only the concentration of nutrients in surface waters has increased, but also their elemental ratios have changed. Such shifts in resource supply ratios will alter autotroph stoichiometry, which may in turn have consequences for higher trophic levels, including parasites. Here, we hypothesize that parasite elemental composition will follow changes in the stoichiometry of its host, and that its reproductive success will decrease with host nutrient limitation. We tested this hypothesis by following the response of a host-parasite system to changes in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) supply in a controlled laboratory experiment. To this end, we exposed a fungal parasite (the ch

SUBMITTER: Frenken T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5459933 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature