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Resource heterogeneity, diet shifts and intra-cohort competition: effects on size divergence in YOY fish

  • Population Ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Most organisms exhibit a substantial size variation among individuals due to individual differences in experienced biotic and abiotic environmental conditions and because individuals undergo growth and development during most of their life time. One important issue in this context is how size variation within cohorts may develop over time. Here, we tested the hypothesis, in gape-limited animals such as fish, that size divergence among individuals within a cohort depends on the opportunity to undergo size-dependent diet shifts, by allowing initially larger individuals to make an early diet shift when the first resource becomes limiting. We used young-of-the-year perch (Perca fluviatilis) as our study organism. Competitive intensity and the opportunity to undergo a diet shift from zooplankton to macroinvertebrates affected both mean growth rates and the extent to which inter-individual variation in growth was manifested. As predicted, increased competition combined with the presence of both zooplankton and benthic macroinvertebrates increased the degree of size variation. However, size divergence was also observed among individuals when only the initial resource, zooplankton, was available. We argue that only non-exploitative interactions, such as dominance structures and social interactions, could have caused this latter pattern, as exploitative competition is expected to lead to size convergence due to the superior competitive ability of smaller individuals. Our results suggest that diet shifts are not a prerequisite for size divergence in animal cohorts, and that dominance and social interactions may have similar effects on size variation within cohorts. Finally, development of size variation is suggested to have strong implications for overall cohort performance.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Emma Göthe and Mårten Söderquist for field and laboratory assistance. We also thank Joel Trexler and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Council for Forestry and Agricultural Sciences to L. Persson. The experiment in this study complies with current laws of Sweden and was approved by the ethnical committee at Umeå University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    Magnus Huss, Pär Byström & Lennart Persson

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  1. Magnus Huss
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  2. Pär Byström
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  3. Lennart Persson
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Correspondence to Magnus Huss.

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Communicated by Joel Trexler.

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Huss, M., Byström, P. & Persson, L. Resource heterogeneity, diet shifts and intra-cohort competition: effects on size divergence in YOY fish. Oecologia 158, 249–257 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1140-9

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