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Competition fluctuates across years and seasons in a 6-species-fish community: empirical evidence from the field

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Abstract

Competition not only occurs between species, but (probably more importantly) also among individuals within species, especially, for species occurring in high densities and when resources are limiting. Fluctuating densities and dietary overlap may account for massive ecological and evolutionary changes in fish communities. We sampled a mixed juvenile (0+ stages, being younger than 1 year of age) fish community at the Lower Rhine over three consecutive years, including native and newly established species (~ 64,000 captured individuals and ~ 4200 dissected fish). Our aim was to develop a new approach in which data on density, individual consumption rates, and diet overlaps (both intra- and interspecific) solely originating from the natural environment, were used and combined to estimate species-specific competitive strengths within and between seasons and species. The juvenile fish community at the food-limited Rhine was dominated by invasive gobies. Species-specific consumption rates decreased depending on the dietary overlap with other juveniles. Two invasive gobies (Neogobius melanostomus and N. fluviatilis) showed the greatest competitive abilities, followed by a third invasive Gobiid species (Ponticola kessleri) and the native Aspius aspius, a species utilizing an exclusive food source. Both other native species (Perca fluviatilis and Sander lucioperca) had the lowest estimates of food-related competitive strength, indicating that these species are forced into a juvenile competitive bottleneck by the invasive gobies, before they finally can develop into successful predators on gobies later in life. Our new analytical approach to measure dietary competitive strength among individuals provides a powerful tool to empirically study eco-evolutionary feedback dynamics in the field.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Pavel Jurajda (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno) and the members of his team for their help during several fishing campaigns, as well as numerous students from the University of Cologne who helped with field assistance. We also thank Tomas Brodin (SLU Umeå, Sweden), Philipp Hirsch (University of Basel, Switzerland) and two anonymous referees for valuable comments on a previous version of the manuscript, as well as Siobhan Loftus for improving the English text. Parts of the study were financially supported by a grant of the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (to JB), and the Volkswagen foundation (Project 92 002) to KH. Sampling and experiments complied with the current laws of Germany and were approved by the ethical commission of the University of Cologne as well as by the institution responsible for fishing in the River Rhine (Rheinfischereigenossenschaft NRW).

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  1. Department of General Ecology, Institute for Zoology of the University of Cologne, Ecological Field Station Rees, 50923, Cologne, Germany

    Jost Borcherding, Katja Heubel & Svenja Storm

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  1. Jost Borcherding
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Correspondence to Jost Borcherding.

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Svenja Storm: née Svenja Gertzen

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Borcherding, J., Heubel, K. & Storm, S. Competition fluctuates across years and seasons in a 6-species-fish community: empirical evidence from the field. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 29, 589–604 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-019-09567-x

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