Community responses to variable predation: field studies with sunfish and freshwater macroinvertebrates
Article
Butler Iv, MJ. (1989). Community responses to variable predation: field studies with sunfish and freshwater macroinvertebrates
. ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS, 59(3), 311-328. 10.2307/1942604
Butler Iv, MJ. (1989). Community responses to variable predation: field studies with sunfish and freshwater macroinvertebrates
. ECOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS, 59(3), 311-328. 10.2307/1942604
Studied the impact of variable predation by bluegill sunfish Lepomis macrochirus on macroinvertebrate prey in a N Florida lake. Patchy, temporally variable predation characterized middepth and deep lake habitats, whereas in the shallow zone predation was relatively constant and homogeneous. Predation varied significantly every 2-4 wk in the middepth zone, but varied little between consecutive weeks or days. Variable predation altered prey community composition and increased the mean size and size range of some prey. Prey abundances also appeared more heterogeneous among cages (patches) and varied more temporally under a variable predation regime, but total prey abundance, species abundance, and within-patch spatial heterogeneity did not differ among predator treatments. In general, the macroinvertebrate community exposed to variable predation more closely approximated the natural middepth zone community than that from the constant predation regime. -from Author