Development of dietary specializations in a summer community of juvenile fishes

Abstract

Patterns of food use and food availability were analysed in a species rich summer weedbed community of juvenile lake fish to elucidate ontogenetic and ecological adaptations facilitating species co-existence and rapid growth. It was found that: (a) the community was based on the period of high seasonal invertebrate abundance linked to the spring-summer proliferation of macrophytes: food was not limiting; (b) diet separations of individual fish species were high. In mid-July when nine species were present, Schoener diet overlap values exceeded 0.25 in only ten of 36 pairs of combinations. This contrasted with findings from a preceding May-June community of larval fish (Keast 1980); (c) mouth size helped channel the species towards different diets; and (d) diets of the early juveniles were distinct from those of the larvae, and late juveniles and adults of their species. At both the species and community level, ontogenetic and ecological developments have evolved in response to the opportunities created by an annually repetitive resource base.