The nutritional diversity of resources can affect the adaptive evolution of consumer metabolism and consumer diversification. Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA) have a high potential to affect consumer fitness, through their widespread effects on reproduction, growth, and survival. However, few studies consider the evolution of fatty acid metabolism within an ecological context. In this review, we first document the extensive diversity in both primary producer and consumer n-3 LC-PUFA distributions among major ecosystems, between habitats, and among species within habitats. We highlight some of the key nutritional contrasts that can shape behavioral and/or metabolic adaptation in consumers, discussing how consumers can evolve in response to the spatial, seasonal, and community-level variation of resource quality. We propose a hierarchical trait-based approach for studying the evolution of consumers’ metabolic networks, and review the evolutionary genetic mechanisms underpinning consumer adaptation to n-3 LC-PUFA distributions. In doing so, we consider how the metabolic traits of consumers are hierarchically structured, from cell membrane function to maternal investment, and have strongly environment-dependent expression. Finally, we conclude with an outlook on how studying the metabolic adaptation of consumers within the context of nutritional landscapes can open up new opportunities for understanding evolutionary diversification.

1. Stable isotopes represent a unique approach to provide insights into the ecology of organisms. δ13C and δ15N have specifically be used to obtain information on the trophic ecology and food web interactions. The trophic discrimination factor (TDF, Δ13C and Δ15N) describes the isotopic fractionation occurring from diet to consumer tissue and this value is critical to obtain precise estimates within any application of δ13C and δ15N. It is widely acknowledged that metabolism influences the TDF, being responsible for different TDFs between tissues of variable metabolic activity (e.g. liver vs. muscle tissue) or species body size (small vs. large). However, the connection between the variation of metabolism occurring within a single species during its ontogeny and TDFs has rarely been considered. 2. Here, we conducted a 9-month feeding experiment to report Δ13C and Δ15N of muscle and liver tissue for several weight classes of Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis), a widespread teleost often studied using stable isotopes, but without established TDFs for feeding on a natural diet. In addition, we assessed the relationship between the standard metabolic rate (SMR) and TDFs by measuring their oxygen consumption of the individuals. 3. Our results showed a significant negative relationship of SMR with Δ13C, but not with Δ15N of muscle or TDFs of liver tissue. SMR was significantly higher in perch juveniles, which translated to significantly lower Δ13C of muscle tissue. 4. In summary, our results emphasize the role of metabolism in shaping specific TDFs (i.e. Δ13C of muscle tissue), and especially highlight the substantial differences between individuals of different ontogenetic stages within a species. Our findings thus have direct implications for the use of stable isotope data and the applications of stable isotopes in food web studies.

Phenotypic divergence in response to divergent natural selection between environments is a common phenomenon in species of freshwater fishes. Intraspecific differentiation is often pronounced between individual inhabiting lakes versus stream habitats. The different hydrodynamic regimes in the contrasting habitats may promote a variation of body shape, but this could be intertwined with morphological adaptions to a specific foraging mode. Herein, I studied the divergence pattern of the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), a common freshwater fish that has paid little attention despite its large distribution. In many Scandinavian mountain lakes, they are considered as being invasive and were found to pose threats to the native fish populations due to dietary overlap. Minnows were recently found to show phenotypic adaptions in lake versus stream habitats, but the question remained if this divergence pattern is related to trophic niche partitioning. I therefore studied the patterns of minnow divergence in morphology (i.e. using geometric morphometrics) and trophic niches (i.e. using stomach content analyses) in the lake Ånnsjön and its tributaries to link the changes in body morphology to the feeding on specific resources. Lake minnows showed a strong reliance on zooplankton and a more streamlined body shape with an upward facing snout, whereas stream minnows fed on macroinvertebrates (larvae and adults) to a higher degree and had a deeper body with a snout that was pointed down. Correlations showed a significant positive relationship of the proportion of zooplankton in the gut and morphological features present in the lake minnows. The results of this study highlight the habitat-specific divergence pattern in morphology and resource use in this ubiquitous freshwater fish, which may promote contrasting inter-specific interactions in the respective food webs.