Quantifying food competition between two demersal fish species from spatiotemporal stomach content data
Lindmark, M.; Maioli, F.; Anderson, S. C.; Gogina, M.; Bartolino, V.; Skold, M.; Ohlsson, M.; Eklof, A.; Casini, M.
Show abstract
Inference on competition is often made on indirect patterns of potential competition, such as population trends and spatiotemporal overlap in diet and distribution. However, these indicators do not test if the contested resources are limited in supply, nor if they decline as competitor biomass increases. Using stomach content and biomass data, we evaluate food competition between Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and flounder (Platichthys spp.) in the Baltic Sea. We quantify diet overlap and fit geostatistical mixed models to evaluate effects of local-scale covariates on stomach contents. The dietary overlap is low and does not decline with predator density. We find that cod feed less on the isopod Saduria entomon at high flounder densities. However, the total prey weight in cod is not affected by flounder densities. This suggests interspecific food competition is not limiting the overall feeding of cod, but affects its diet composition. In addition, we find support for intraspecific food competition in large cod and flounder. Our study illustrates the importance of local-scale processes when inferring competition from stomach content data.
Matching journals
The top 8 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Top predator introduction changes the effects of spatial isolation on freshwater community structure 94%
- Multi-species mechanistic model of functional response provides new insights into predator-mediated interactions in a vertebrate community 93%
- Temperature And Nutrient Conditions Modify The Effects Of Phenological Shifts In Predator-Prey Communities 93%
Similar papers in this journal
- Both environmental conditions and intra- and interspecific interactions influence the movements of a marine predator 94%
- Sampling from commercial vessel routes can capture marine biodiversity distributions effectively 93%
- Inferring species interactions from ecological survey data: a mechanistic approach to predict quantitative food webs of seed-feeding by carabid beetles 92%
Similar papers in this journal
- Optimum growth temperature declines with body size within fish species 95%
- Transient demographic dynamics of recovering fish populations shaped by past climate variability, harvest, and management 94%
- Ecological theory predicts ecosystem stressor interactions in freshwater ecosystems, but highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the additive null model 94%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.