Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32792497›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2020

Taxonomic identity best explains variation in body nutrient stoichiometry in a diverse marine animal community.

Jacob E Allgeier, Seth Wenger, Craig A Layman

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
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  4. Smaller and bolder fish enhance ecosystem-scale primary production around artificial reefs in seagrass beds.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Jacob E AllgeierDepartment of Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. jeallg@umich.edu.
Seth WengerOdum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA.
Craig A LaymanDepartment of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Animal-mediated nutrient dynamics are critical processes in ecosystems. Previous research has found animal-mediated nutrient supply (excretion) to be highly predictable based on allometric scaling, but similar efforts to find universal predictive relationships for an organism's body nutrient content have been inconclusive. We use a large dataset from a diverse tropical marine community to test three frameworks for predicting body nutrient content. We show that body nutrient content does not follow allometric scaling laws and that it is not well explained by trophic status. Instead, we find strong support for taxonomic identity (particularly at the family level) as a predictor of body nutrient content, indicating that evolutionary history plays a crucial role in determining an organism's composition. We further find that nutrients are "stoichiometrically linked" (e.g., %C predicts %N), but that the direction of these relationships does not always conform to expectations, especially for invertebrates. Our findings demonstrate that taxonomic identity, not trophic status or body size, is the best baseline from which to predict organismal body nutrient content.

Indexed as

BiodiversityBody SizeFood ChainNutritional StatusAnimalsInvertebratesMarine BiologyNutrientsNutrients

Identifiers

PMID32792497
PMCPMC7426267

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.