Trophic position, elemental ratios and nitrogen transfer in a planktonic host-parasite-consumer food chain including a fungal parasite.

ABSTRACT: Parasitism is arguably the most commonly occurring consumer strategy. However, only a few food web studies assess how well stable isotopes reflect the trophic position of parasitic consumers and results are variable. Even fewer studies have measured the nutrient transfer by parasitic consumers, hindering an assessment of their role in nutrient transfer through food webs. Here we used a food chain consisting of a diatom as host, a chytrid as its parasitic consumer and a rotifer as the predatory consumer of the chytrid, to assess the trophic position of all three food-chain components using their natural ¹³C and ¹⁵N isotope signatures, and to measure the nitrogen transfer from the host via the chytrid to the rotifer by tracing ¹⁵N of a labelled host up the fo

SUBMITTER: Sanchez Barranco V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7683484 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature