Version 1
: Received: 3 July 2020 / Approved: 5 July 2020 / Online: 5 July 2020 (12:45:56 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 28 July 2020 / Approved: 29 July 2020 / Online: 29 July 2020 (09:40:28 CEST)
Sobczyk, Ł.; Filipiak, M.; Czarnoleski, M. Sexual Dimorphism in the Multielemental Stoichiometric Phenotypes and Stoichiometric Niches of Spiders. Insects2020, 11, 484.
Sobczyk, Ł.; Filipiak, M.; Czarnoleski, M. Sexual Dimorphism in the Multielemental Stoichiometric Phenotypes and Stoichiometric Niches of Spiders. Insects 2020, 11, 484.
Sobczyk, Ł.; Filipiak, M.; Czarnoleski, M. Sexual Dimorphism in the Multielemental Stoichiometric Phenotypes and Stoichiometric Niches of Spiders. Insects2020, 11, 484.
Sobczyk, Ł.; Filipiak, M.; Czarnoleski, M. Sexual Dimorphism in the Multielemental Stoichiometric Phenotypes and Stoichiometric Niches of Spiders. Insects 2020, 11, 484.
Abstract
Nutritional limitations may shape populations and communities of organisms. This phenomenon is often studied by treating populations and communities as pools of homogenous individuals with average nutritional optima and experiencing average constraints and trade-offs that influence their fitness in a standardized way. However, populations and communities consist of individuals belonging to different sexes, each with specific nutritional demands and limitations. Taking this into account, we used the ecological stoichiometry framework to study sexual differences in the stoichiometric phenotypes, reflecting stoichiometric niches, of four spider taxa differing in hunting mode. The species and sexes differed fundamentally in their elemental phenotypes, including elements beyond those most commonly studied (C, N and P). Both species and sexes were distinguished by the C:N ratio and concentrations of Cu, K and Zn. Species additionally differed in concentrations of Na, Mg and Mn. Phosphorous was not involved in this differentiation. Sexual dimorphism in spiders’ elemental phenotypes, related to differences in their stoichiometric niches, suggests different nutritional optima and differences in nutritional limitation experienced by different sexes and species. This may influence the structure and functioning of spider populations and communities.
Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received:
29 July 2020
Commenter:
Michał Filipiak
Commenter's Conflict of Interests:
Author
Comment:
We are very grateful to editor and the reviewers for the helpful critical comments, and we have done our best to improve the text accordingly. The main comments to the authors concerned the potential causes of mismatches between the current stoichiometric body composition and the actual demands of the organism's body.
Commenter: Michał Filipiak
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author