Finlay Ryder

(he/him)

BA

Previously, we may have oversimplified the roles of nutrients in shaping freshwater food webs. Whilst nutrients are understood to influence community structure, their conceptualisation as elemental ratios do not effectively capture the ways in which organisms forage. Building upon optimal foraging theory, we suggest that whilst micronutrients (P, Ca, Fe, Mg) are foraged at the elemental level, foraging for macronutrients occurs at the level of biochemical compounds (lipids, proteins, carbohydrates) rather than for their elemental components (C and N). Building upon this, we hypothesise that incorporation of biochemical macronutrients into ecological networks analysis permits detailed understanding of trophic interactions. Here, we aim to test this hypothesis, investigating nutritional networks in ponds across the Brecon Beacons National Park to understand the ways in which biochemical and elemental macronutrients are foraged for, and provide deeper insight into the role of nutrients in shaping food web structure, dynamics and function.

My research project is supervised by Dr Fred Windsor (FreshNet Lab; Cardiff University) and Dr Jordan Cuff (Foraging Ecology Research Group; University of Newcastle).