Relationships between body size and trophic position of consumers in temperate freshwater lakes |
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| Authors: | Persaud A D Dillon P J Molot L A Hargan K E |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Chemistry, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, Canada;(2) Department of Biology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Animal body size is a driving force behind trophic interactions within biological communities, yet few studies have explored
relationships between body size and trophic position (based on δ15N) at a broad-scale in freshwater lakes. Therefore, our goals were to (1) determine whether body size is a good predictor
of trophic position for multiple pelagic zooplankton taxa and fish communities, and (2) examine how body size-trophic position
relationships at the community level compare to species level for fish. Zooplankton and fish were collected from 12 and 7
lakes, respectively, located in the Kawarthas, southern Ontario, Canada. The results indicated that for zooplankton, significant
positive but different relationships were found between body size and trophic position for cladocerans, in general, and Daphnia, but not Holopedium. For fish, at the lake community level six out of seven relationships were positive and significant, but again, different
among lakes. In contrast, at the species level only three of eight species-specific relationships were significant. Furthermore,
for two widespread species, Perca flavescens and Micropterus dolomieu, significant differences were found between community- and lake-specific species relationships. Our community-level models
and most species-level models provide evidence that trophic interactions in freshwater lakes are size-based. These results
demonstrate that general species models should be applied with caution when using body size to predict trophic position. Additionally,
the predictive power of some relationships found here is questionable since, albeit significant, their strengths are generally
low. Together, our results suggest that body size may have limited use in predicting trophic position of some biota in temperate
freshwater lakes. |
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