Abstract
Analysis of historical and recent data is essential to understand how eutrophication and/or climate change might trigger shifts in the feeding mode of fish and trophic dynamics of shallow lakes. To assess long-term changes in the diet and growth of juvenile pikeperch (Sander lucioperca), the prey selection and growth of pikeperch fry from Lake Vortsjarv was investigated in 2007 - 2010 and compared with data from 1920 to 1970. Over the observed period, larger cladocerans have become less frequent in the diet as eutrophication has altered the zooplankton community. Furthermore, climate change has triggered a mismatch between the predator and its prey: the smelt population has collapsed but other fish fries are too large for YOY (young-of-the-year) pikeperch. However, the mean length of fish has decreased mainly due to the postponed diet shift.
Highlights
Predator-prey interactions play a major role in aquatic ecosystems and can affect the whole biological community [1]
Climate change has triggered a mismatch between the predator and its prey: the smelt population has collapsed but other fish fries are too large for YOY pikeperch
The type of food consumed by juvenile pikeperch is argued to depend mostly on the availability of zooplankton species [2]
Summary
Predator-prey interactions play a major role in aquatic ecosystems and can affect the whole biological community [1]. In this respect, the diet and ontogenetic dietary shift of juvenile pikeperch, Sander lucioperca (L.), have been studied quite extensively in many north temperate waters [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9] as the size and structure of pikeperch populations are strongly dependent on their success at the juvenile stage [5,10]. Lake Võrtsjärv can be taken as a model for other shallow north temperate lakes under high anthropogenic and natural pressures to analyse the possible factors influencing the diet, diet shift and growth of juvenile pikeperch and the success of pikeperch populations
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