Scheda di dettaglio – i prodotti della ricerca
| Dato | Valore |
|---|---|
| Title | Can size distributions of European lake fish communities be predicted by trophic positions of their fish species? |
| Abstract | An organism's body size plays an important role in ecological interactions such as predator-prey relationships. As predators are typically larger than their prey, this often leads to a strong positive relationship between body size and trophic position in aquatic ecosystems. The distribution of body sizes in a community can thus be an indicator of the strengths of predator-prey interactions. The aim of this study was to gain more insight into the relationship between fish body size distribution and trophic position in a wide range of European lakes. We used quantile regression to examine the relationship between fish species' trophic position and their log-transformed maximum body mass for 48 fish species found in 235 European lakes. Subsequently, we examined whether the slopes of the continuous community size distributions, estimated by maximum likelihood, were predicted by trophic position, predator-prey mass ratio (PPMR), or abundance (number per unit effort) of fish communities in these lakes. We found a positive linear relationship between species' maximum body mass and average trophic position in fishes only for the 75% quantile, contrasting our expectation that species' trophic position systematically increases with maximum body mass for fish species in European lakes. Consequently, the size spectrum slope was not related to the average community trophic position, but there were negative effects of community PPMR and total fish abundance on the size spectrum slope. We conclude that predator-prey interactions likely do not contribute strongly to shaping community size distributions in these lakes. |
| Source | Ecology and evolution 12 (7) |
| Keywords | body sizecommunity size spectrumecological interactionsfishpredator-prey interactionstrophic level |
| Journal | Ecology and evolution |
| Editor | Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, Regno Unito |
| Year | 2022 |
| Type | Articolo in rivista |
| DOI | 10.1002/ece3.9087 |
| Authors | van Dorst, Renee M.; Argillier, Christine; Brucet, Sandra; Holmgren, Kerstin; Volta, Pietro; Winfield, Ian J.; Mehner, Thomas |
| Text | 472357 2022 10.1002/ece3.9087 Scopus 2 s2.0 85135031372 body size community size spectrum ecological interactions fish predator prey interactions trophic level Can size distributions of European lake fish communities be predicted by trophic positions of their fish species van Dorst, Renee M.; Argillier, Christine; Brucet, Sandra; Holmgren, Kerstin; Volta, Pietro; Winfield, Ian J.; Mehner, Thomas Lancaster Environment Centre; Centre de Recherche INRAE Provence Alpes Cote d Azur; Istituto di Ricerca sulle Acque, Italy; Universitat de Vic Universitat Central de Catalunya UVic UCC ; Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats; Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries; Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet An organism s body size plays an important role in ecological interactions such as predator prey relationships. As predators are typically larger than their prey, this often leads to a strong positive relationship between body size and trophic position in aquatic ecosystems. The distribution of body sizes in a community can thus be an indicator of the strengths of predator prey interactions. The aim of this study was to gain more insight into the relationship between fish body size distribution and trophic position in a wide range of European lakes. We used quantile regression to examine the relationship between fish species trophic position and their log transformed maximum body mass for 48 fish species found in 235 European lakes. Subsequently, we examined whether the slopes of the continuous community size distributions, estimated by maximum likelihood, were predicted by trophic position, predator prey mass ratio PPMR , or abundance number per unit effort of fish communities in these lakes. We found a positive linear relationship between species maximum body mass and average trophic position in fishes only for the 75% quantile, contrasting our expectation that species trophic position systematically increases with maximum body mass for fish species in European lakes. Consequently, the size spectrum slope was not related to the average community trophic position, but there were negative effects of community PPMR and total fish abundance on the size spectrum slope. We conclude that predator prey interactions likely do not contribute strongly to shaping community size distributions in these lakes. 12 Published version http //www.scopus.com/record/display.url eid=2 s2.0 85135031372 origin=inward Articolo in rivista Wiley Blackwell 2045 7758 Ecology and evolution Ecology and evolution Ecology and evolution pietro.volta VOLTA PIETRO |