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The effects of an exotic fish invasion on the prey communities of two lakes

  1. Beatrix E. Beisner1,*,
  2. Anthony R. Ives1,2,
  3. Stephen R. Carpenter1

Article first published online: 1 APR 2003

DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2656.2003.00699.x

Issue

Journal of Animal Ecology

Journal of Animal Ecology

Volume 72, Issue 2, pages 331–342, March 2003

Additional Information

How to Cite

Beisner, B. E., Ives, A. R. and Carpenter, S. R. (2003), The effects of an exotic fish invasion on the prey communities of two lakes. Journal of Animal Ecology, 72: 331–342. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2656.2003.00699.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 680 N. Park Street, Madison, WI, 53706–1492, USA; and

  2. 2

    Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA

* ‡Correspondence and current address: Beatrix E. Beisner, Department of Zoology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada. Tel: (519) 824 4120; Fax: (519) 767 1656; E-mail: bbeisner@uoguelph.ca

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 1 APR 2003
  2. Article first published online: 1 APR 2003
  3. Received 13 June 2002; accepted 18 November 2002

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Keywords:

  • exotic invasions;
  • multivariate autoregressive models;
  • non-metric multidimensional scaling;
  • rainbow smelt;
  • zooplankton community structure

Summary

  • 1
    We examined changes in prey (zooplankton) communities resulting from the invasion of an exotic predator, the rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax Mitchill), using long-term data sets from two lakes in Wisconsin, USA.
  • 2
    Food webs in the two lakes differed originally both in the dominant native planktivorous fish species and in relative biomasses of major zooplankton groups.
  • 3
    Zooplankton communities in each lake changed dramatically, coinciding with the exotic predator invasion. The communities in the two lakes became more similar to each other, with cyclopoid copepods becoming dominant.
  • 4
    Time-series analyses demonstrated that the long-term responses of the two lake prey communities were driven primarily by direct predation effects of planktivorous fish. Indirect effects acting through competitive interactions among zooplankton were present but were comparatively small in the long term.
  • 5
    Results suggest that zooplankton populations were subject to both predator and resource limitation but that the composition (relative species abundance) of the zooplankton community was dictated in the long term by predation.
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