Department of Zoology, Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma, 74078.
Department of Biological Sciences and Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15260.
Ecol Evol. 2014 Feb;4(4):528-38. doi: 10.1002/ece3.950. Epub 2014 Jan 15.
Understanding the ecological consequences of evolutionary change is a central challenge in contemporary biology. We propose a framework based on the ˜25 elements represented in biology, which can serve as a conduit for a general exploration of poorly understood evolution-to-ecology links. In this framework, known as ecological stoichiometry, the quantity of elements in the inorganic realm is a fundamental environment, while the flow of elements from the abiotic to the biotic realm is due to the action of genomes, with the unused elements excreted back into the inorganic realm affecting ecological processes at higher levels of organization. Ecological stoichiometry purposefully assumes distinct elemental composition of species, enabling powerful predictions about the ecological functions of species. However, this assumption results in a simplified view of the evolutionary mechanisms underlying diversification in the elemental composition of species. Recent research indicates substantial intraspecific variation in elemental composition and associated ecological functions such as nutrient excretion. We posit that attention to intraspecific variation in elemental composition will facilitate a synthesis of stoichiometric information in light of population genetics theory for a rigorous exploration of the ecological consequences of evolutionary change.
理解进化变化的生态后果是当代生物学的一个核心挑战。我们提出了一个基于生物学中所代表的 25 个要素的框架，这个框架可以作为一个渠道，用来探索人们对进化与生态联系的理解。在这个被称为生态化学计量学的框架中，无机领域中元素的数量是一个基本的环境，而元素从非生物领域流向生物领域是由于基因组的作用，未被利用的元素被排泄回无机领域，从而影响更高层次的组织的生态过程。生态化学计量学有意地假设了物种的不同元素组成，使我们能够对物种的生态功能进行强有力的预测。然而，这种假设导致了对物种元素组成多样化的进化机制的简化观点。最近的研究表明，元素组成和相关生态功能（如营养排泄）在种内存在大量的变异。我们假设，关注元素组成的种内变异将有助于根据群体遗传学理论综合化学计量信息，从而对进化变化的生态后果进行严格的探索。
