Fatty acids (FAs) are key nutrients for fitness which take part in multiple physiological processes over the ontogeny of organisms. Yet, we lack evidence on how FA nutrition mediates life-history trade-offs and ontogenetic niche shifts in natural populations. In a field study, we analyzed ontogenetic changes in the FAs of Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis L.), a widespread fish that goes through ontogenetic niche shifts and can have high individual niche specialization. Diet explained most of the variation in the FA composition of perch dorsal muscle over early ontogeny (28%), while the total length explained 23%, suggesting that perch significantly regulated FA composition over early ontogeny. Condition explained 1% of the remaining variation. 18:3n-3 (ALA) and 18:4n-3 (SDA) indicated planktivory; 18:1n-7, benthivory; and 22:6n-3 (DHA), piscivory in perch diet. Conversely, perch regulated long-chained polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), such as 20:5n-3 (EPA), 20:4n-6 (ARA) and 22:6n-3 (DHA) over ontogeny, emphasizing the role of such FAs in early growth and sexual maturation. Adult perch increasingly retained 16:1n-7 and 18:1n-9 suggesting higher energy storage in older perch. Furthermore, differences in DHA availability in diet correlated with intra-cohort differences in perch growth, potentially hindering the overall use of benthic resources and promoting earlier shifts to piscivory in littoral habitats. Overall, this study indicates that in addition to diet, internal regulation may be more important for FA composition than previously thought. Differences between FA needs and FA availability may lead to life-history trade-offs that affect the ecology of consumers, including their niche.

In addition to an increase in mean temperature, extreme climatic events, such as heat waves, are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity with climate change, which are likely to affect organism interactions, seasonal succession, and resting stage recruitment patterns in terrestrial as well as in aquatic ecosystems. For example, freshwater zooplankton with different life-history strategies, such as sexual or parthenogenetic reproduction, may respond differently to increased mean temperatures and rapid temperature fluctuations. Therefore, we conducted a long-term (18 months) mesocosm experiment where we evaluated the effects of increased mean temperature (4°C) and an identical energy input but delivered through temperature fluctuations, i.e., as heat waves. We show that different rotifer prey species have specific temperature requirements and use limited and species-specific temperature windows for recruiting from the sediment. On the contrary, co-occurring predatory cyclopoid copepods recruit from adult or subadult resting stages and are therefore able to respond to short-term temperature fluctuations. Hence, these different life-history strategies affect the interactions between cyclopoid copepods and rotifers by reducing the risk of a temporal mismatch in predator-prey dynamics in a climate change scenario. Thus, we conclude that predatory cyclopoid copepods with long generation time are likely to benefit from heat waves since they rapidly "wake up" even at short temperature elevations and thereby suppress fast reproducing prey populations, such as rotifers. In a broader perspective, our findings suggest that differences in life-history traits will affect predator-prey interactions, and thereby alter community dynamics, in a future climate change scenario.

1. Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems differ fundamentally in the abundance of longchained polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5n-3), which are produced by aquatic algae, but only in low quantities by terrestrial plants. Aquatic insects, such as Chironomidae (non-biting midges) feed on algae during their larval stage, making them rich in EPA and therefore high-quality prey for insectivores after emergence. However, the magnitude of EPA subsidies from aquatic insects may be different among water bodies in response to abiotic (e.g. nutrient load) as well as biotic factors (e.g. food web structure).2. To test the predation effects of crucian carp (Carassius carassius), nutrient concentrations, and Chironomidae community composition on the fatty acid export from aquatic ecosystems, we conducted a 25-day experiment across 20 1,500-L mesocosms covering a total phosphorus (TP) gradient of 20-1,000 µg/L.3. Twice a week, we collected adult emerging Chironomidae and found differences in fatty acid composition in the two most abundant chironomid species emerging from the mesocosms. Two PUFAs, α-linolenic acid and EPA, contributed to most of the variation in Chironomidae fatty acid content across the nutrient gradient.Whereas the proportions of α-linolenic acid were positively correlated to the mesocosm TP concentration, we found a negative correlation for the proportions of Chironomidae EPA and mesocosm TP concentration. However, despite lower biomass-specific EPA content at higher TP, higher biomass of emerging Chironomidae at intermediate TP concentrations resulted in higher total export of PUFAs from water to land. 4. Predation pressure from carp decreased the biomass of emerging Chironomidae on average 8-fold. Chironomidae biomass showed a hump-shaped relationship along the TP-gradient and was strongly influenced by periphyton biomass. 5. Export rates of EPA and fatty acids in general responded in a quadratic manner along the nutrient gradient, reaching a maximum value at a TP of 400 µg/L and decreasing thereafter.

2020. Climate warming and heat waves alter harmful cyanobacterial blooms along the benthic-pelagic interface. Ecology 101 (7):Abstract. In addition to a rise in mean air and water temperatures, more frequent and intense extreme climate events (such as heat waves) have been recorded around the globe during the past decades. These environmental changes are projected to intensify further in the future, and we still know little about how they will affect ecological processes driving harmful cyanobacterial bloom formation. Therefore, we conducted a long-term experiment in 400-L shallow freshwater mesocosms, where we evaluated the effects of a constant +4°C increase in mean water temperatures and compared it with a fluctuating warming scenario ranging from 0 to +8°C (i.e., including heat waves) but with the same +4°C long-term elevation in mean water temperatures. We focused on investigating not only warming effects on cyanobacterial pelagic dynamics (phenology and biomass levels), but also on their recruitment from sedimentswhich are a fundamental part of their life history for which the response to warming remains largely unexplored. Our results demonstrate that (1) a warmer environment not only induces a seasonal advancement and boosts biomass levels of specific cyanobacterial species in the pelagic environment, but also increases their recruitment rates from the sediments, and (2) these species-specific benthic and pelagic processes respond differently depending on whether climate warming is expressed only as an increase in mean water temperatures or, in addition, through an increased warming variability (including heat waves). These results are important because they show, for the first time, that climate warming can affect cyanobacterial dynamics at different life-history stages, all the way from benthic recruitment up to their establishment in the pelagic community. Furthermore, it also highlights that both cyanobacterial benthic recruitment and pelagic biomass dynamics may be different as a result of changes in the variability of warming conditions. We argue that these findings are a critical first step to further our understanding of the relative importance of increased recruitment rates for harmful cyanobacterial bloom formation under different climate change scenarios.