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Temporal clumping of prey and coexistence of unequal interferers: experiments on social forager groups of brown trout feeding on invertebrate drift

Jönsson, Mikael LU ; Skov, Christian ; Koed, Anders and Nilsson, Anders LU orcid (2008) In Oikos 117(12). p.1782-1787
Abstract
Environmental fluctuations have been proposed to enhance the coexistence of competing phenotypes. Evaluations are here presented on the effects of prey density and short-term temporal clumping of prey availability on the relative foraging success of unequal interferers in social forager groups of juvenile brown trout Salmo trutta feeding on drifting invertebrate prey (frozen chironomids). Groups of three trout with established linear dominance hierarchies (dominant, intermediate and subordinate) were subjected to three different total numbers of prey, combined with three different levels of temporal clumping of prey arrival, resulting in nine treatment combinations. Higher total number of prey increased the consumption for all dominance... (More)
Environmental fluctuations have been proposed to enhance the coexistence of competing phenotypes. Evaluations are here presented on the effects of prey density and short-term temporal clumping of prey availability on the relative foraging success of unequal interferers in social forager groups of juvenile brown trout Salmo trutta feeding on drifting invertebrate prey (frozen chironomids). Groups of three trout with established linear dominance hierarchies (dominant, intermediate and subordinate) were subjected to three different total numbers of prey, combined with three different levels of temporal clumping of prey arrival, resulting in nine treatment combinations. Higher total number of prey increased the consumption for all dominance ranks, while higher temporal clumping decreased the consumption for the dominant individuals and increased the consumption for the subordinate individuals. The proportion of prey eaten was smaller at high prey numbers. Similarly, there was a trend that increased temporal clumping also decreased the proportion of prey eaten. We conclude that density and temporal clumping of prey contribute to the coexistence of unequal interferers, and that there is a potential positive feedback between prey behaviour and phenotypic coexistence through decreased per capita predation risk for prey that drift synchronously in high densities. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Oikos
volume
117
issue
12
pages
1782 - 1787
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • wos:000261793300004
  • scopus:57649149969
ISSN
1600-0706
DOI
10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.16848.x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
c8f8952a-da5f-4899-8016-abac8d5c20e4 (old id 1379164)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:54:48
date last changed
2022-01-26 20:05:00
@article{c8f8952a-da5f-4899-8016-abac8d5c20e4,
  abstract     = {{Environmental fluctuations have been proposed to enhance the coexistence of competing phenotypes. Evaluations are here presented on the effects of prey density and short-term temporal clumping of prey availability on the relative foraging success of unequal interferers in social forager groups of juvenile brown trout Salmo trutta feeding on drifting invertebrate prey (frozen chironomids). Groups of three trout with established linear dominance hierarchies (dominant, intermediate and subordinate) were subjected to three different total numbers of prey, combined with three different levels of temporal clumping of prey arrival, resulting in nine treatment combinations. Higher total number of prey increased the consumption for all dominance ranks, while higher temporal clumping decreased the consumption for the dominant individuals and increased the consumption for the subordinate individuals. The proportion of prey eaten was smaller at high prey numbers. Similarly, there was a trend that increased temporal clumping also decreased the proportion of prey eaten. We conclude that density and temporal clumping of prey contribute to the coexistence of unequal interferers, and that there is a potential positive feedback between prey behaviour and phenotypic coexistence through decreased per capita predation risk for prey that drift synchronously in high densities.}},
  author       = {{Jönsson, Mikael and Skov, Christian and Koed, Anders and Nilsson, Anders}},
  issn         = {{1600-0706}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  pages        = {{1782--1787}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Oikos}},
  title        = {{Temporal clumping of prey and coexistence of unequal interferers: experiments on social forager groups of brown trout feeding on invertebrate drift}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.16848.x}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/j.1600-0706.2008.16848.x}},
  volume       = {{117}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}