Effects of stream predator richness on the prey community and ecosystem attributes.

It is important to understand the role that different predators can have to be able to predict how changes in the predator assemblage may affect the prey community and ecosystem attributes. We tested the effects of different stream predators on macroinvertebrates and ecosystem attributes, in terms of benthic algal biomass and accumulation of detritus, in artificial stream channels. Predator richness was manipulated from zero to three predators, using two fish and one crayfish species, while density was kept equal (n = 6) in all treatments with predators. Predators differed in their foraging strategies (benthic vs. drift feeding fish and omnivorous crayfish) but had overlapping food preferences. We found effects of both predator species richness and identity, but the direction of effects differed depending on the response variable. While there was no effect on macroinvertebrate biomass, diversity of predatory macroinvertebrates decreased with increasing predator species richness, which suggests complementarity between predators for this functional feeding group. Moreover, the accumulation of detritus was affected by both predator species richness and predator identity. Increasing predator species richness decreased detritus accumulation and presence of the benthic fish resulted in the lowest amounts of detritus. Predator identity (the benthic fish), but not predator species richness had a positive effect on benthic algal biomass. Furthermore, the results indicate indirect negative effects between the two ecosystem attributes, with a negative correlation between the amount of detritus and algal biomass. Hence, interactions between different predators directly affected stream community structure, while predator identity had the strongest impact on ecosystem attributes

Preference for cannibalism and ontogenetic constraints in competitive ability of piscivorous top predators

We experimentally show that the piscivorous top predator Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) have higher attack rates on cannibal prey compared to the interspecific prey species ninespine stickleback (Pungitius pungitius), and that sticklebacks are more efficient competitiors for zooplankton resources compared to juvenile char. We also conducted a literature survey that together with our experiments showed that piscivorous top consumers selected cannibal prey over interspecific prey in 9 out of 10 cases. Our literature survey also showed that specialist prey species are competitively superior compared to juvenile piscivorous species within the zooplankton niche. We discuss our results in relation to omnivory in fish communities and we suggest that the observed general preference for cannibal prey over interspecific prey in piscivores and the competitive advantage of prey species over juvenile piscivores may be major mechanisms for coexistence in fish communities