Abstract
Our understanding of ecosystem functioning is strongly linked to the study ofpredator–prey relationships and food web structures. However, trophic ecology hasoften focused on identifying taxonomic relationships and quantifying the biomassor energy ingested by consumers, but has often failed to integrate the importanceof the nutritional quality of resources in ecological dynamics. Underlying this gap isthe multi-dimensional nature of resource quality which has hampered any consensuson the definition of resource nutritional quality. In this special issue, we aimed atgathering a subset of articles exemplifying the diversity of variables by which resourcesquality is quantified, the diversity of research topics that can be tackled in ecology– from physiological or evolutionary aspects to ecosystem processes – and proposesome perspectives on the integration of nutritional quality within broader ecologicalconcepts. Using a semi-automated literature analysis, we map the current landscapeof the ‘resources nutritional quality’ research of the last 30 years. We depict how ithas been quantified through physical, biological or chemical indicators, the use ofthese parameters being largely dependent on the type of ecosystem studied and on theinvestigated ecological process. We then position the articles published in this specialissue of Oikos within this landscape, showing they cover a small but relatively wellrepresentative subset of the domains of resources quality-related issues. Articles in thisspecial issue browse a range of individual and population-level approaches (embracingevolutionary questions) to community related questions, include methodologicalissues and ecosystem-wide approaches using trophic quality indicators as tracers ofresources origin. Based on these studies and on the literature review, we identify a nonexhaustivelist of challenges and perspectives of research that we consider of highestpriority in the large topic of trophic ecology.