Response of Yellow Perch and the Benthic Invertebrate Community to a Reduction in the Abundance of White Suckers

Abstract

Abstract Competitive interactions between white suckers Catostomus commersoni and yellow perch Perca flavescens were evaluated in a whole-lake manipulation experiment with one treatment lake and one reference lake. After a 2-year pretreatment period, 80% of the adult white sucker population was removed from Douglas Lake, Michigan, with trap nets set during the spring spawning season of 1987. Following white sucker removal, the abundance of chironomid larvae and the mayfly Caenis sp. increased 13–18-fold in Douglas Lake, In Little Bear Lake, the control lake, Caenis sp. showed a 20% decline in abundance during the study period (1985–1989), and chironomid larvae showed a 2.2-fold increase over the same time period. Associated with the increase in benthic invertebrate abundance in Douglas Lake, the diet of adult (>age-0) yellow perch shifted from predominantly zooplankton to predominantly benthos. This shift was accompanied by an increase in mean stomach content weight and feeding rate, eventually becoming a...