Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Predator-prey interactions in size-structured fish communities: implications of prey growth

  • Community Ecology
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Predator-prey interactions among size-structured populations may be strongly influenced by factors which affect growth rates of prey. I examined the importance of prey growth in the interaction between large-mouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and their prey, bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), by analyzing diets and growth rates of bass in a set of seven lakes in south-central Wisconsin. Sizes of bluegill consumed by bass changed dramatically across a gradient of bluegill growth, which resulted in differing patterns of bass growth. In lakes with slow bluegill growth, small bass fed on the youngest bluegill cohort, but large bass were capable of feeding on several age classes. Consequently, bass growth rates were strongly size-dependent; small bass ate small prey and had low growth, but growth rates increased substantially with size as bass ate progressively larger prey. When bluegill had high growth rates, they quickly reached a size refuge from predation and bass of all sizes were restricted to feeding on the youngest/smallest prey. In these lakes, bass growth rates were more uniform across bass sizes. Because growth rates influence population size-distributions, variation in bluegill growth can have strong effects on the structure of bass populations. These effects could potentially feed back to further influence the interaction between predator and prey.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams SM, DeAngelis DL (1987) Indirect effects of early bass-shad interactions on predator population structure and food web dynamics. In: Kerfoot WC, Sih A (eds) Predation: direct and indirect effects on aquatic communities. University Press of New England. Hanover pp 103–117

    Google Scholar 

  • Applegate RL, Mullen JW (1966) Food of young largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides in a new and old reservoir. Trans Am Fish Soc 96:75–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagenal TB (1978) Aspects of fish fecundity. In: Gerking SD (ed) Ecology of freshwater fish production. Wiley, New York, pp 75–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Belk MC, Hales LS (1993) Predation induced differences in growth and reproduction of bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus). Copeia 1993:1034–1044

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlander KD (1982) Standard intercepts for calculating lengths from scale measurements for some centrarchid and percid fishes. Trans Am Fish Soc 111:332–336

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochran PA, Adelman IR (1982) Seasonal aspects of daily ration and diet of largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, with an evaluation of gastric evacuation rates. Environ Biol Fish 7:265–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Dillard JG, Novinger GD (1975) Stocking largemouth bass in small impoundments. In: Stroud RH, Clepper H (eds) Black bass biology and management. Sport Fishing Institute, Washington, pp 459–479

    Google Scholar 

  • Giles N (1980) A stomach sampler for use on live fish. J Fish Biol 17:411–429

    Google Scholar 

  • Gotthard K, Nylin S, Wiklund C (1994) Adaptive variation in growth rate: life history costs and consequences in the speckled wood butterfly Pararge aegeria. Oecologia 99:281–289

    Google Scholar 

  • Hambright KD (1991) Experimental analysis of prey selection by largemouth bass: role of predator mouth width and prey body depth. Trans Am Fish Soc 120:501–508

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidinger RC (1975) Life history of the largemouth bass. In: Stroud RH, Clepper H (eds) Black bass biology and management. Sport Fishing Institute. Washington, pp 11–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoyle JA, Keast A (1987) The effect of prey morphology and size on handling time in a piscivore, the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) Can J Zool 65:1972–1977

    Google Scholar 

  • Keast A, Eadie JM (1985) Growth depensation in year-0 largemouth bass: the influence of diet. Trans Am Fish Soc 114:204–213

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurzava LM, Morin PJ (1994) Consequences and causes of geographic variation in the body size of a keystone predator, Notophthalmus viridescens. Oecologia 99:271–280

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence JM (1958) Estimated sizes of various forage fishes largemouth bass can swallow. Proc Ann Conf SE Assoc Game Fish Comm 11:220–225

    Google Scholar 

  • Luecke C, Rice JA, Crowder LB, Yeo SF, Binkowski FP (1990) Recruitment mechanisms of bloater in Lake Michigan: an analysis of the predatory gauntlet. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 47:524–532

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller TJ, Crowder LB, Rice JA, Marschall EA (1988) Larval size and recruitment mechanisms in fishes: toward a conceptual framework. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 45:1657–1670

    Google Scholar 

  • Mittelbach GG (1981) Foraging efficiency and body size: a study of optimal diet and habitat use by bluegills. Ecology 62:1370–1386

    Google Scholar 

  • Mittelbach GG (1988) Competition among refuging sunfishes and effects of fish density on littoral zone invertebrates. Ecology 69:614–623

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore MV (1988) Differential use of food resources by the instars of Chaoborus punctipennis. Freshwater Biol 19:249–268

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson MH (1996) Ontogenetic niche shifts in largemouth bass: variability and consequences for first year growth. Ecology 77:179–190

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson MH, Mittelbach GG, Osenberg CW (1995) Competition between predator and prey: resource-based mechanisms and implications for stage-structured dynamics. Ecology 76:1758–1771

    Google Scholar 

  • Osenberg CW, Mittelbach GG (1989) Effects of body size on the predator-prey interaction between pumpkinseed sunfish and gastropods. Ecol Monogr 59:405–432

    Google Scholar 

  • Osenberg CW, Olson MH, Mittelbach GG (1994) Stage-structure in fishes: resource productivity and competition gradients. In: Stouder DJ, Fresh KL, Feller RJ (eds) Theory and application in fish feeding ecology. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, pp 151–170

    Google Scholar 

  • Osenberg CW, Werner EE, Mittelbach GG, Hall DJ (1988) Patterns of growth in bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) and pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) sunfish: environmental variation and the importance of ontogenetic niche shifts. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 45:17–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Paine RT (1976) Size-limited predation: an observational and experimental approach with the Mytilus-Pisaster interaction. Ecology 57:858–873

    Google Scholar 

  • Paszkowski CA, Tonn WM (1994) Effects of prey size, abundance, and population structure on piscivory by yellow perch. Trans Am Fish Soc 123:855–865

    Google Scholar 

  • Persson L (1985) Asymmetric competition: are larger animals competitively superior? Am Nat 126:261–266

    Google Scholar 

  • Persson L (1988) Assymetries in competitive and predatory interactions in fish populations. In: Ebenman B, Persson L (eds) Size-structured populations: ecology and evolution. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 203–218

    Google Scholar 

  • Persson L, Eklov P (1995) Prey refuges affecting interactions between piscivorous perch and juvenile perch and roach. Ecology 76:70–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips JM, Jackson JR, Noble RL (1995) Hatching date influence on age-specific diet and growth of age-0 largemouth bass. Trans Am Fish Soc 124:370–379

    Google Scholar 

  • Polis GA, Myers CA, Holt RD (1989) The ecology and evolution of intraguild predation: potential competitors that eat each other. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 20:297–330

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice JA, Crowder LB, Rose KA (1993a) Interactions between size-structured predator and prey populations. Trans Am Fish Soc 122:481–491

    Google Scholar 

  • Rice JA, Miller TJ, Rose KA, Crowder LB, Marschall EA, Trebitz AS, DeAngelis DL (1993b) Growth rate variation and larval survival: inferences from an individual based size-dependent predation model. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 50:133–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Seaburg KG (1957) A stomach sampler for live fish. Prog Fish Cult 19:137–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Sih A, Crowley P, McPeek M, Petranka J, Strohmeier K (1985) Predation, competition, and prey communities: a review of field experiments. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 16:269–311

    Google Scholar 

  • Summerfelt RC (1975) Relationship between weather and yearclass strength of largemouth bass. In: Stroud RH, Clepper H (eds) Black bass biology and management. Sport Fishing Institute, Washington, pp 166–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Swingle HS, Smith EV (1940) Experiments on the stocking of fish ponds. Trans N Am Wild Conf 5:267–276

    Google Scholar 

  • Tesch FW (1968) Age and growth. In: Ricker WE (ed) Methods for assessment of fish production in fresh waters. Blackwell, New York, pp 93–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Timmons TJ, Shelton WJ, Davies WD (1980) Differential growth of largemouth bass in West Point Reservoir, Alabama-Georgia. Trans Am Fish Soc 109:176–186

    Google Scholar 

  • Tonn WM, Paszkowski CA (1986) Size-limited predation, winterkill, and the organization of Umbra-Perca assemblages. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 43:194–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Travis J (1980) Genetic variation for larval specific growth rate in the frog Hyla gratiosa. Growth 44:167–181

    Google Scholar 

  • Travis J, Keen WH, Julianna J (1985) The role of relative body size in a predator-prey relationship between dragonfly naiads and larval anurans. Oikos 45:59–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner EE (1977) Species packing and niche complimentarity in three sunfishes. Am Nat 111:553–578

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner EE (1986) Species interactions in freshwater fish communities. In: Diamond J, Case TJ (eds) Community ecology. Harper and Row, New York, pp 344–358

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner EE, Gilliam JF (1984) The ontogenetic niche and species interactions in size-structured populations. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 15:393–425

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilbur HM (1972) Competition, predation, and the structure of the Ambystoma-Rana sylvatica community. Ecology 53:3–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilbur HM (1988) Interactions between growing predators and growing prey. In: Ebenman B, Persson L (eds) Size=structured populations: ecology and evolution. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 157–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Wissinger SA (1992) Niche overlap and the potential for competition and intraguild predation between size-structured populations. Ecology 73:1431–1444

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaret TM (1980) Predation and freshwater communities. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Mark H. Olson

    Present address: Cornell Biological Field Station, 900 Shackelton Point Road, 13030, Bridgeport, NY, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, 53706, Madison, WI, USA

    Mark H. Olson

Authors
  1. Mark H. Olson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Olson, M.H. Predator-prey interactions in size-structured fish communities: implications of prey growth. Oecologia 108, 757–763 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00329052

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00329052

Key words

Search

Navigation