Ecological Stoichiometry
- LAST REVIEWED: 19 November 2021
- LAST MODIFIED: 31 March 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199830060-0146
- LAST REVIEWED: 19 November 2021
- LAST MODIFIED: 31 March 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199830060-0146
Introduction
Ecological stoichiometry (ES) is the study of the balance of energy and multiple chemical elements in ecological interactions. Although much of the foundation of this field lies in studies of lakes (and especially of lake plankton), the application of ES has greatly expanded in 21st century, with extensions to streams, soils, grasslands, forests, and other ecosystems. This article provides a guide to recent introductory articles and reviews of the ES approach, to some of the foundational papers that preceded the formal definition of ES, and to a cross-section of papers dealing with biochemical, evolutionary, and ecological (especially biogeochemical) applications of ES. The field remains highly dynamic: a topic search on “ecolog stoichiometry” in ISI Web of Science yields more than 6,100 citations per year (in 2013; compared to less than five hundred in 1993). Thus, this annotated bibliography can only touch on the tip of this growing iceberg.
Introductory Works and Syntheses
The common framework provided by the study of multiple chemical elements pointed the way toward integration of diverse fields within ecology (physiological ecology, community ecology, biogeochemistry) and of ecology with other realms of biology, such as evolutionary biology. The possibility of direct elemental (P) limitation of consumer growth due to its “dilution” in the C-rich biomass that is generated when photoautotrophs (algae, plants) are nutrient-limited was inferred by workers studying freshwater zooplankton and reported in early papers such as Urabe and Watanabe 1992 and Sterner and Hessen 1994. The impacts of such stoichiometric imbalance on nutrient recycling were analyzed mathematically and compared to existing data (Sterner 1990). Soon thereafter, researchers began to hypothesize about the biochemical and evolutionary drivers that are responsible for the C:N:P ratios that characterize biomass of both consumers and producers, suggesting an important role of growth rate–related allocation to P-rich ribosomal RNA in the “growth rate hypothesis” that is developed in Elser, et al. 1996. Sterner and Elser 2002 is a foundational work that brought together a large number of disparate research threads in ecology and stimulated considerable new research, including an expansion of stoichiometric thinking into new realms (“biological stoichiometry”), such as biochemical allocation, life history evolution, and even cancer dynamics.
Elser, J. J., D. R. Dobberfuhl, N. A. MacKay, and J. H. Schampel. 1996. Organism size, life history, and N:P stoichiometry: Toward a unified view of cellular and ecosystem processes. BioScience 46:674–684.
DOI: 10.2307/1312897
This synthetic paper extends stoichiometric thinking downwards toward cellular and biochemical levels and sketches several hypotheses about observed variation in C:N:P ratios in biota, including the “Growth Rate Hypothesis” (GRH) connecting C:N:P ratios to growth rate and RNA allocation.
Sterner, R. W. 1990. The ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus resupplied by herbivores: Zooplankton and the algal competitive arena. American Naturalist 136:209–229.
DOI: 10.1086/285092
Mathematical modeling of the mass balances of N and P into a strictly homeostatic consumer was used to predict a non-linear relationship between the N:P of recycled nutrients and the N:P of ingested food as well as dependence on body N:P of the consumer.
Sterner, R. W., and D. O. Hessen. 1994. Algal nutrient limitation and the nutrition of aquatic herbivores. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 25:1–29.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.es.25.110194.000245
An early synthesis of extant and emerging data highlighting the potential importance of stoichiometric imbalance between autotrophs and herbivores, integrating physiological to ecosystem level dimensions.
Sterner, R. W., and J. J. Elser. 2002. Ecological stoichiometry: The biology of elements from molecules to the biosphere. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
This is considered the definitive textbook of the field. Written for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, the book develops and builds stoichiometric reasoning from cellular and biochemical levels through organismal physiology to trophic ecology and ecosystem nutrient cycling.
Urabe, J., and Y. Watanabe. 1992. Possibility of N or P limitation for planktonic cladocerans: An experimental test. Limnology and Oceanography 37:244–251.
DOI: 10.4319/lo.1992.37.2.0244
This important paper introduces the concept of “Threshold Elemental Ratio” (TER) that delineates the breakpoint between C-limited and nutrient-limited growth for a consumer and provides estimates of TER for C:N and C:P for two species of freshwater zooplankton.
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Article
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- Agroecology
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- Animals, Functional Morphology of
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- Anthropocentrism
- Applied Ecology
- Aquatic Conservation
- Aquatic Nutrient Cycling
- Archaea, Ecology of
- Assembly Models
- Autecology
- Bacterial Diversity in Freshwater
- Benthic Ecology
- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
- Biodiversity, Dimensionality of
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- Biofuels
- Biogeochemistry
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- Biological Rhythms
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- Biophilia
- Braun, E. Lucy
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- Carson, Rachel
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- Coevolution
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- Community Phenology
- Competition and Coexistence in Animal Communities
- Competition in Plant Communities
- Complexity Theory
- Conservation Biology
- Conservation Genetics
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- Darwin, Charles
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- Ecology, Microbial (Community)
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- Ecology of the Atlantic Forest
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- Ecosystem Engineers
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- Ecotourism
- Elton, Charles
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- Environmental Anthropology
- Environmental Justice
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- Genetic Considerations in Plant Ecological Restoration
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- Geographic Range
- Gleason, Henry
- Grazer Ecology
- Greig-Smith, Peter
- Gymnosperm Ecology
- Habitat Selection
- Harper, John L.
- Harvesting Alternative Water Resources (US West)
- Heavy Metal Tolerance
- Heterogeneity
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- Host-Parasitoid Interactions
- Human Ecology
- Human Ecology of the Andes
- Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence
- Hutchinson, G. Evelyn
- Indigenous Ecologies
- Industrial Ecology
- Insect Ecology, Terrestrial
- Invasive Species
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- Island Biology
- Keystone Species
- Kin Selection
- Landscape Dynamics
- Landscape Ecology
- Laws, Ecological
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- Leopold, Aldo
- Lichen Ecology
- Life History
- Limnology
- Literature, Ecology and
- MacArthur, Robert H.
- Mangrove Zone Ecology
- Marine Fisheries Management
- Mass Effects
- Mathematical Ecology
- Mating Systems
- Maximum Sustainable Yield
- Metabolic Scaling Theory
- Metacommunity Dynamics
- Metapopulations and Spatial Population Processes
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- Mimicry
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- Mutualisms and Symbioses
- Mycorrhizal Ecology
- Natural History Tradition, The
- Networks, Ecological
- Niche Versus Neutral Models of Community Organization
- Niches
- Nutrient Foraging in Plants
- Ocean Sprawl
- Odum, Eugene and Howard
- Old Fields
- Ordination Analysis
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- Paleolimnology
- Parental Care, Evolution of
- Pastures and Pastoralism
- Patch Dynamics
- Peatlands
- Phenotypic Plasticity
- Phenotypic Selection
- Philosophy, Ecological
- Phylogenetics and Comparative Methods
- Physiological Ecology of Nutrient Acquisition in Animals
- Physiological Ecology of Photosynthesis
- Physiological Ecology of Water Balance in Terrestrial Anim...
- Physiological Ecology of Water Balance in Terrestrial Plan...
- Plant Blindness
- Plant Disease Epidemiology
- Plant Ecological Responses to Extreme Climatic Events
- Plant-Insect Interactions
- Polar Regions
- Pollination Ecology
- Population Dynamics, Density-Dependence and Single-Species
- Population Dynamics, Methods in
- Population Ecology, Animal
- Population Ecology, Plant
- Population Fluctuations and Cycles
- Population Genetics
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- Predation and Community Organization
- Predation, Sublethal
- Predator-Prey Interactions
- Radioecology
- Reductionism Versus Holism
- Religion and Ecology
- Remote Sensing
- Restoration Ecology
- Rewilding
- Ricketts, Edward Flanders Robb
- Secondary Production
- Seed Ecology
- Senescence
- Serpentine Soils
- Shelford, Victor
- Simulation Modeling
- Socioecology
- Soil Biogeochemistry
- Soil Ecology
- Spatial Pattern Analysis
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- Spatial Scale and Biodiversity
- Species Distribution Modeling
- Species Extinctions
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- Species-Area Relationships
- Stability and Ecosystem Resilience, A Below-Ground Perspec...
- Stoichiometry, Ecological
- Stream Ecology
- Succession
- Sustainable Development
- Systematic Conservation Planning
- Systems Ecology
- Tansley, Sir Arthur
- Terrestrial Nitrogen Cycle
- Terrestrial Resource Limitation
- Territoriality
- Theory and Practice of Biological Control
- Thermal Ecology of Animals
- Tragedy of the Commons
- Transient Dynamics
- Trophic Levels
- Tropical Humid Forest Biome
- Urban Ecology
- Urban Forest Ecology
- Vegetation Classification
- Vegetation Mapping
- Vicariance Biogeography
- Weed Ecology
- Wetland Ecology
- Whittaker, Robert H.
- Wildlife Ecology