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Body size is a better predictor of intra-than interspecific variation of animal stoichiometry across realms
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  • Mark Nessel,
  • Olivier Dézerald,
  • Julian Merder,
  • Karl Andraczek,
  • Ulrich Brose,
  • Michał Filipiak,
  • Michelle Jackson,
  • Malte Jochum,
  • Stan Harpole,
  • Helmut Hillebrand,
  • Shawn Leroux,
  • Renske Onstein,
  • George Perry,
  • Amanda Rugenski,
  • Judith Sitters,
  • Erik Sperfeld,
  • Maren Striebel,
  • Eugenia Zandona,
  • Hideyuki Doi,
  • Nico Eisenhauer,
  • Vinicius Farjalla,
  • Nicholas Gotelli,
  • James Hood,
  • Pavel Kratina,
  • Eric Moody,
  • Liam Nash,
  • Anton Potapov,
  • Gustavo Romero,
  • Jean-Marc Roussel,
  • Stefan Scheu,
  • Julia Seeber,
  • Winda Ika Susanti,
  • Alexei Tiunov,
  • Angélica González
Mark Nessel
Oklahoma State University System
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Olivier Dézerald
Institut national de la recherche agronomique
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Julian Merder
Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology
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Karl Andraczek
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
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Ulrich Brose
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Lepizig
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Michał Filipiak
Jagiellonian University in Krakow
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Michelle Jackson
University of Oxford
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Malte Jochum
Julius-Maximilians-Universitat Wurzburg
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Stan Harpole
iDiv: German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
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Helmut Hillebrand
University of Oldenburg
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Shawn Leroux
Memorial University
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Renske Onstein
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
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George Perry
University of Auckland
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Amanda Rugenski
University of Georgia
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Judith Sitters
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Erik Sperfeld
University of Greifswald
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Maren Striebel
University of Oldenburg
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Eugenia Zandona
State University of Rio de Janeiro Biomedical Centre
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Hideyuki Doi
University of Hyogo
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Nico Eisenhauer
University of Leipzig
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Vinicius Farjalla
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
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Nicholas Gotelli
University of Vermont
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James Hood
Ohio State University
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Pavel Kratina
Queen Mary University of London
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Eric Moody
Middlebury College
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Liam Nash
Queen Mary University of London
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Anton Potapov
Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institut fur Zoologie und Anthropologie
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Gustavo Romero
State University of Campinas (UNICAMP)
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Jean-Marc Roussel
INRAE Bretagne-Normandie
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Stefan Scheu
Georg August University of Göttingen
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Julia Seeber
University of Innsbruck
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Winda Ika Susanti
University of Goettingen
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Alexei Tiunov
Russian Academy of Sciences, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution
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Angélica González
Rutgers University Camden

Corresponding Author:angelica.gonzalez@rutgers.edu

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Abstract

Animal stoichiometry influences critical processes from organismal physiology to biogeochemical cycles. However, it remains uncertain whether animal stoichiometry follows predictable scaling relationships with body mass and whether adaptation to terrestrial or aquatic environments constrains elemental allocation. We tested both interspecific and intraspecific body-mass scaling relationships for nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and N:P content using a subset of the StoichLife database, which includes 9,933 individual animals across 1,543 species spanning 10 orders of magnitude in body mass from terrestrial, freshwater, and marine realms. Our results show that body mass predicts intraspecific stoichiometric variation, accounting for 42-45% of the variation in 27% of vertebrate and 35% of invertebrate species. However, body mass was less effective at explaining interspecific variation, with taxonomic identity emerging as a more significant factor. Differences between aquatic and terrestrial organisms were observed only in invertebrate interspecific %N, suggesting that realm has a relatively minor influence on elemental allocation. Our study, based on the most comprehensive animal stoichiometry database to date, revealed that while body mass is a good predictor of intraspecific elemental content, it is less effective for interspecific patterns. This highlights the importance of evolutionary history and taxonomic identity over general scaling laws in explaining stoichiometric variation.