Trophic niche differences between coexisting omnivores silver carp and bighead carp in a pelagic food web

Abstract

AbstractUnderstanding how omnivorous consumers are affected by their resources and how this is expressed through the food chain is a fundamental issue in ecology. We used stable isotope analysis of archived scales of two pelagic single‐chain omnivorous fish species, bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) and silver carp (H. molitrix), to reconstruct historical trophic interactions patterns along a gradient of resources. We found that, although bighead carp and silver carp utilize the similar resources from the pelagic food chain, they can coexist and persist not only by regulating their trophic position and trophic dissimilarity, but also by regulating trophic niche width. Omnivorous fish often exhibit flexible foraging strategies, which is closely related to the availability of ecologic context. We found a positive relationship between trophic dissimilarity and zooplankton density, which may indicate that the competitive interactions induce strong top‐down effects on zooplankton, and/or that high zooplankton availability release the between‐population trophic interaction through bottom‐up effect. The trophic niche width of bighead carp was positively related with zooplankton availability, probably reflecting that the niche of an omnivore at a higher trophic position is more sensitive to high quality resources. Our results indicate how different aspects of the trophic partitioning of coexisting omnivores may be regulated by different ecological contexts. These alternatives are not mutually exclusive and further theoretical work should include both these mechanisms to re‐evaluate the effects of omnivory on food web properties.