Bartley, T. J. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2019

Thermal preferences drive behavioural responses but not biomass responses of predatory fishes to lake morphometry

Top predators responses to environmental conditions shape food web architecture and influence ecosystem structure and stability. Yet the impacts of fundamental properties like ecosystem size and morphometry on top predators behaviour are poorly understood. We examined how lake morphometry impacts the behaviour (inferred by depth use) of three key fish top predators--the cold-adapted lake trout, the cool-adapted walleye, and the warm-adapted smallmouth bass-- which can each strongly impact local food web structure. We used catch-per-unit-effort data from nearly 500 boreal lakes of Ontario, Canada to evaluate the role of thermal preference in dictating mean depth of capture and biomass index in response to lake morphometry. We found evidence that thermal preferences influence how species depth use and biomass changed with lake size, proportion of littoral area, and maximum lake depth, although we found no relationship with lake shape. However, found no strong evidence that lake morphology influences these species biomasses, despite theory that predicts such a relationship. Our results suggest that some aspects of lake morphometry can alter habitat accessibility and productivity in ways that influence the behaviour and biomass of these top predator species depending on their thermal preferences. Our results have implications for how lake food webs expand and contract with lake morphometry and other key abiotic factors. We argue that several key abiotic factors likely drive top predator depth use in ways that may shape local food web structure and play an important role in determining the ultimate fate of ecosystems with environmental change.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2018

Multiple species drive flexible lake food webs with warming

Climate change is rewiring the food webs that determine the fate of diverse ecosystems. Mobile generalist consumers are responding to climate change by rapidly shifting their behaviour and foraging, driving food webs to flex. Although these responsive generalists form a key stabilizing module in food web structure, the extent to which they are present throughout whole food webs is largely unknown. Here, we show that multiple species comprising key trophic roles drive flexible lake food webs with warming. By examining lakes that span a 7{degrees}C air temperature gradient, we found significant reductions in nearshore derived carbon and nearshore habitat use with increased temperature in three of four fish species. We also found evidence that the response of lake trout to increased temperatures may reduce their biomass and cascade to release their preferred prey, the pelagic forage fish cisco. Our results suggest that climate warming will shift lake food webs toward increased reliance on offshore habitats and resources. We argue that species across trophic levels broadly couple lake macrohabitats, suggesting that potentially stabilizing responsive consumers are present throughout food webs. However, climate change appears to limit their ability to responsively forage, critically undermining a repeated stabilizing mechanism in food webs.

ecology↗