Within-individual trophic variability drives short-term intraspecific trait variation in natural populations

1. Intra-specific trait variability (ITV) maintains functional diversity in populations and communities, and plays a crucial role in ecological and evolutionary processes such as trophic cascades or speciation. Furthermore, functional variation within a species and its populations can help buffer against harmful environmental changes. Trait variability within species can be observed from differences among populations, and between- and within individuals. In animals, ITV can be driven by ontogeny, the environment in which populations live, and by within-individual specialization or variation unrelated to growth. However, we still know little about the relative strength of these drivers in determining ITV variation in natural populations.

2. Here, we aimed to (1) measure the relative strength of between- and within-individual effects of body size on ITV over time, and (2) disentangle the trophic changes due to ontogeny from other sources of variability, such as the environment experien...