Does Recruitment trigger negative Density-Dependent Feedback loops in Stream-Dwelling Salmonids?

Author(s):  
Javier Lobon-Cervia

I explored the hypothesis that recruitment may stabilize the numerical dynamics of stream-dwelling salmonids by triggering density-dependent feedback loops through the operation of recruitment-dependence on individual growth, mortality, life span and maximum size and their effects on fecundity. I examined 98 cohorts of two Salmo trutta populations of northern Spain and a population of Jutland (Denmark) located 2400 km apart Recruitment, growth, mortality, life span and maximum size were inter-related, were recruitment-dependent and described negative power trajectories. In the Spanish populations, faster growing individuals of weakly recruited cohorts with lower mortality attain longer life span and larger size. Hence, larger females spawning more abundant, larger eggs that, in turn, induce stronger cohorts of higher spawners’ abundance, recruitment and mortality. The mortality patterns match the self-thinning patterns, an ultimate expression of competition. Significant relationships among self-thinning slopes and mortalities rates with increasing recruitment demonstrate that the rate at which density-driven mortality is higher, the stronger the intensity of intraspecific competition. Space-limited habitat and size-dependent resource availability underpinning site-specific carrying capacities suggest that interference competition is the primary mechanism underpinning population regulation.

2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 1231-1242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Lobón-Cerviá

The objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which, and the conditions under which, density operated on growth in stream-living brown trout (Salmo trutta). Observational data of 14 cohorts at four sites of Rio Chaballos (northwestern Spain) were examined. Consistent relationships between cohort-specific mass versus cohort-specific density and between year-to-year variations in brown trout mass at the end of five successive life stages versus mean densities corroborated one another and provided compelling evidence for the occurrence of density-dependent growth. However, density-dependent patterns varied in nature among sites to the extent that they were site-specific. A further comparison among 12 data sets revealed a smooth negative power trajectory between juvenile mass versus density. This plot suggested that detection of density-dependent growth might be facilitated in low density – high growth populations located at the steep wing relative to high density – slow growth populations. Current results emphasized the importance of density as a factor determining size-at-age and supported its operation as epiphenomena capable to obscure the effects of temperature on growth. The operation of density-dependent growth on numerical regulation of the population is further discussed.


2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 597-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew JH Davey ◽  
George F Turner ◽  
Stephen J Hawkins ◽  
C Patrick Doncaster

In field experiments using cage enclosures, exploitation competition for invertebrate prey reduced individual growth of adult European bullheads (Cottus gobio) despite a dietary shift that maintained total prey biomass consumption. Growth of bullheads was negatively density dependent over a range of densities found in the field and total biomass production per enclosure was unrelated to stocking density. Individuals grew faster when invertebrate densities were experimentally elevated above ambient levels, indicating that bullheads were food limited. Parallel dietary shifts in response to manipulation of both bullhead density and resource availability suggested that exploitation competition for preferred Gammarus pulex prey was the primary cause of density-dependent growth. Switching to smaller prey species did not prevent growth of bullheads declining with increasing per capita food competition, indicating that the alternative prey were less profitable. Evidence for interference competition was limited. These results caution against the assumption that demographic rates of stream fish are density independent after the juvenile phase and demonstrate instead that density-dependent growth may potentially regulate populations at the adult stage via effects on fecundity and survival.


Author(s):  
Ken H. Andersen

This chapter develops descriptions of how individuals grow and reproduce. More specifically, the chapter seeks to determine the growth and reproduction rates from the consumption rate, by developing an energy budget of the individual as a function of size. To that end, the chapter addresses the question of how an individual makes use of the energy acquired from consumption. It sets up the energy budgets of individuals by formulating the growth model using so-called life-history invariants, which are parameters that do not vary systematically between species. While the formulation of the growth model in terms of life-history invariants is largely successful, there is in particular one parameter that is not invariant between life histories: the asymptotic size (maximum size) of individuals in the population. This parameter plays the role of a master trait that characterizes most of the variation between life histories.


2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 684-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Brännäs ◽  
Sara Jonsson ◽  
Hans Lundqvist

We studied the benefit of being territorial as an effect of food abundance by measuring the proportions of individuals that displayed a territorial, floating (individuals occasionally displayed territorial behaviour), or nonterritorial (shoaling) behaviour strategy, and individual growth rates. Also, swimming activity was monitored as an indicator of emigration. Replicate groups of 12 juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta) were released into an artificial stream channel, fed according to one of four food regimes for 10 days, and allocated to one of three behaviour categories. There was no significant relationship between food abundance and the number of territorial individuals. Instead, the proportions of individuals that displayed the alternative behaviour strategies, i.e., floating and nonterritorial, changed with food abundance. At the lowest food level, more individuals displayed nonterritorial than floating behaviour, but these two strategies were equally represented at the highest food level. The difference in growth rates with respect to behaviour category was highest at intermediate food levels. At the highest and lowest food levels, nonterritorial fish and floaters grew nearly as fast or as poorly, respectively, as the territorial individuals. Swimming activity between the two sections of the stream tank was greatest at the lowest food level, and there was a general tendency (not significant) for the floaters to exhibit the greatest activity.


Parasitology ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Kennedy

SUMMARYPopulation dynamics, site selection, growth and maturation of the cestode Eubothrium crassum in a natural population of Salmo trutta in a small lake were studied over a period of 1 year, the life-span of a cohort in fish. Infection of fish commenced in spring but peaked in July. Small, plerocerciform parasites initially located in the intestine, but then some moved into the pyloric caecae whilst others, the majority in heavy infections, were lost from the fish causing a fall in abundance from 460 to 10 over 2 months. This mortality was density dependent. Initially, parasites were distributed more evenly throughout the caecae but as time increased larger parasites were found preferentially in the anterior caecae before moving back into the intestine when gravid, preparatory to being lost in the following summer. Only a small proportion of the infrapopulation became gravid. Although the proportion of caecae occupied was initially density dependent, by the time of maturation several preferred anterior caecae remained unoccupied and mean intensity always exceeded unity. Neither growth nor maturation was affected by intraspecific competition. It was concluded that caecal availability did not set a limit or threshold of infrapopulation density, and in this respect E. crassum–S. trutta differed from some acanthocephalan-fish systems but was similar to others. Heavy infection followed by heavy mortality appeared to be typical of this parasite-host system in other localities, and of several other cestode-fish systems. The implications of this for population regulation are discussed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 87 (9) ◽  
pp. 781-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koh Hasegawa ◽  
Koji Maekawa

Interspecific competition is a mechanism by which native salmonids can be replaced by non-native species. According to the two-species Lotka–Volterra competition model, replacement of the native species would occur when the non-native species has a competitive advantage over the native species and interspecific competition is more intense than competition within each of the two species. However, field observations have implied that visual barriers such as woody debris may slow down the replacement by mitigating interspecific competition. Using an experimental stream with white-spotted charr ( Salvelinus leucomaenis (Pallas, 1814)) as the native species and brown trout ( Salmo trutta L., 1758) as the non-native species, this study examined aggressive actions within and between species to assess the relative intensities of interspecific and intraspecific competitons within native species and the effect of visual barriers for reducing the relative intensity. In a sympatric and no-barrier treatment where trout was the dominant species, interspecific competition occurred more intensely than intraspecific competition among native charr. However, the relative intensity of interspecific competition decreased in a sympatric and with-barrier treatment. Our results suggest that interspecific competition may contribute to the replacement of native species by more competitive, non-native species. However, restoring visual barriers is a potential method to mitigate interference interactions and may deter the replacement.


2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (10) ◽  
pp. 1651-1662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Guénard ◽  
Daniel Boisclair ◽  
Ola Ugedal ◽  
Torbjørn Forseth ◽  
Ian A. Fleming ◽  
...  

We explored the mechanisms of density-dependent growth in Arctic char ( Salvelinus alpinus ) by comparing the energetics of growth, consumption, and activity obtained under three replicated density treatments in a large-scale enclosure (90 m2 surface area) experiment. The enclosures permitted the entry of zooplankton and allowed char to feed on the bottom and at the surface of the lake. We found a negative (power) relationship between growth and density. Char consumption rate decreased linearly with increasing density. Growth efficiency was affected by fish density in a similar manner as growth rate. Finally, activity increased with fish density and was particularly high at high densities. Our findings illustrate the complexity of the relationships among consumption, activity, growth rates, and fish density and bring further evidence to the possible involvement of behavioural mechanisms in density-dependent processes, notably by modulating activity costs with density.


1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (6) ◽  
pp. 1107-1116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim E Panov ◽  
Donald J McQueen

Individual growth rates of the freshwater amphipod Hyalella azteca (Saussure) were measured in the littoral zone oftwo small oligotrophic Ontario lakes and in growth experiments over a natural temperature gradient (10, 15, 20, and 238C).Field observations showed that a temperature of 208C is important for both the induction and termination of reproductiveresting stages in H. azteca. Growth rates were more affected by temperature in small than in large individuals. Growthparameters are related to rearing temperature by linear regressions, which can be used as a simple model for bioenergeticscalculations in crustaceans. A negative relationship between water temperature and maximum size attained by the amphipodswas found. The largest adults were absent in studied populations when summer temperatures were high, and this phenomenon,which has also been observed in other aquatic invertebrates, was bioenergetically determined. Energy-budget estimationsshowed negative net growth efficiency (K2) in the largest adults at temperatures above 208C. The relationship between K2andtemperature showed a dome-shaped pattern, K2values for larger amphipods being maximal at lower temperatures. Seasonalmigrations of adult H. azteca from shallow littoral to deeper cold habitats, observed in lakes during the warmest periods, appearto be temperature-induced and bioenergetically advantageous, despite probable increases in predation risk experienced inspatially simple deep-water habitats.


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