Pathway to optimal organismal omega-3 fatty acid content Type of functional trait Examples Reference(s)
SUBORDINATE TRAITS SUBORDINATE TRAITS SUBORDINATE TRAITS
Pathway 1: individual-level intracellular fatty acid conversion and regulation Pathway 1: individual-level intracellular fatty acid conversion and regulation Pathway 1: individual-level intracellular fatty acid conversion and regulation Pathway 1: individual-level intracellular fatty acid conversion and regulation
Fatty acid metabolic traits (Fig. 4) T1: fatty acid synthase T2: SFA elongase T3: stearoyl-CoA desaturase T4: omega desaturase T5: Front-end desaturase T6: PUFA elongase T7: Beta-oxidation genes Castro et al. 2012 Castro et al. 2016 Kabeya et al. 2018 Boyen et al. 2020
Pathway 2: individual-level organismal resource acquisition and life history Pathway 2: individual-level organismal resource acquisition and life history Pathway 2: individual-level organismal resource acquisition and life history Pathway 2: individual-level organismal resource acquisition and life history
BEHAVIOURAL ACQUISITION TRAITS BEHAVIOURAL ACQUISITION TRAITS BEHAVIOURAL ACQUISITION TRAITS
Selective Foraging Behaviour
Between prey items within an ecosystem: Calanoid copepods Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Between seasons within an ecosystem European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) Between ecotypes within an ecosystem: Killer whales (Orcinus orca) Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) Between ecosystems: Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) Eglite et al. 2019 Roy et al. 2020 Keva et al. 2019 Cartland-Shaw et al. 1998 Herman et al. 2005 Hudson et al. pers. comm.; Daneau-Lamoureux pers. comm. Twining et al. 2019
Consumer Trophic Position
Ontogeny in Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) Dietary plasticity in larval anurans Chaguaceda et al. 2020 Whiles et al. 2010
LIFE HISTORY TRAITS LIFE HISTORY TRAITS LIFE HISTORY TRAITS
Body size
Freshwater calanoid copepods Round gobies and (Neogobius melanostomus) Monkey gobies (Neogobius fluviatilis) Charette and Derry 2016 Ghomi et al. 2014
Maternal investment Egg Composition (maternal effects) Milk Composition Daphnia egg composition Tropical nudibranch egg composition (Aeolidilla stephanieae) Mammalian milk composition Schlotz et al. 2013 Leal et al. 2012; Leal et al. 2013 Brenna et al. 2009; Hibbeln et al. 2019; Muhlhausler et al. 2011
Migration
Migratory songbirds Migratory bats Southern hemisphere humpback whales (Megaptera novaeanglidae) Pierce and McWilliams 2005; Pierce and McWilliams 2014 McGuire et al. 2013 Waugh et al. 2012
Phenology
Colorado potato beetles (Leptinotarsa decemlineata)
Clements et al. 2019
Hibernation
Black bears (Ursus americanus) Yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) Iverson and Oftedal 1992 Hill and Florant 1999
Dormancy & diapause
Harpacticoid copepods (Heteropsyllus nunni) Lepidopterans Williams and Biesiot 2004 Vukašinović et al. 2015; Hemmati et al. 2017
Morphology (consumer feeding traits) Three-spine stickleback Hudson et al pers. comm.; Daneau-Lamoureux et al. pers. comm.
Influenced by both Pathways 1 and 2 Influenced by both Pathways 1 and 2 Influenced by both Pathways 1 and 2 Influenced by both Pathways 1 and 2
Lipid traits Lipid traits Lipid traits
Total lipids
Fairy shrimp (Chirocephalus diaphanus) Euphausiids (Meganyctiphanes norvegica) Calanoid copepods (Diaptomus kenai) Bocca et al. 1998 Mayzaud et al. 1999 Butler 1994
Lipid classes (e.g., TAGs, polar lipids)
Euphausiids
Saito et al. 2002 Mayzaud et al. 1999
Fatty acid content: SFA (e.g., 16.0, 18.0) MUFA (e.g., OA) PUFAs (e.g., LA, ALA) LC-PUFA (e.g., DHA) Daphnia EPA content Copepod DHA content Sex-specific differences: Daphnia Tuatara Southern humpback whales Hessen and Leu 2006; Wacker and Martin-Creuzburg 2007; Sperfeld and Wacker 2012 Charette and Derry 2016 Martin-Creuzburg et al. 2018 Cartland-Shaw et al. 1998 Waugh et al. 2012
Body condition indexes -weight to length -fat mass Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) Humans (Homo sapiens) Round gobies and Monkey gobies Twining et al. 2016 Tan 2014; Elias and Innis 2001 Ghomi et al. 2014
Physiological traits
Cell membrane fluidity
Eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) Humans and Roundworms (Caenorhabditis elegans) Mineo et al. 2019 Ruiz et al. 2019
Mitochondrial function
Ground squirrels Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) Humans Gerson et al. 2008 Price et al. 2018 Herbst et al. 2014
Inflammation
Immune system performance in Wolf spiders Daphnia Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) Fritz et al 2017 Schlotz et al 2012 Schlotz et al 2013 Schlotz et al 2016 Zhou et al 2020
Buoyancy
Calanoid copepods (Calanoides acutus)
Pond and Tarling 2011
Metabolic Rate and Exercise Performance
Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus) White-throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata) Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) Mammals Gerson et al. 2008 Price and Guglielmo 2009 Dick and Guglielmo 2019 McKenzie et al 1998 Ruf et al 2006
Pathway Products: Individual-level fitness component traits Pathway Products: Individual-level fitness component traits Pathway Products: Individual-level fitness component traits Pathway Products: Individual-level fitness component traits
Growth
Daphnia Tree Swallows Eastern Phoebes Freshwater fish Brett and Müller-Navarra 1997; Müller-Navarra et al. 2000; Ilić et al. 2019 Twining et al. 2016 Twining et al. 2019 Glencross 2009; Zhou et al. 2019 Lundova et al. 2018
Development
Mammalian brain development Avian embryonic development McNamara and Arsch 2019 Pappas et al. 2007
Reproduction
Freshwater calanoid copepod fecundity Daphnia fecundity Eurasian perch gonad size Charette and Derry 2016 Sperfeld and Wacker 2012; Ilić et al. 2019 Scharnweber and Gårdmark 2020
Survival
Tree Swallow fledge success Sterlet survival (Acipenser ruthenus) Twining et al. 2018 Lundova et al. 2018