Asymmetrical habitat coupling of an aquatic predator: The importance of individual specialization

Marklund, Maria H. K.Uppsala universitet,Limnologi,School of Biological Sciences and The Environment Institute, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, SA 5005, Australia (författare)

Asymmetrical habitat coupling of an aquatic predator : The importance of individual specialization

Title in thesis list of papers: Asymmetrical habitat coupling of a top predator
Predators should stabilize food webs because they can move between spatially separate habitats. However, predators adapted to forage on local resources may have a reduced ability to couple habitats. Here, we show clear asymmetry in the ability to couple habitats by Eurasian perch—a common polymorphic predator in European lakes. We sampled perch from two spatially separate habitats—pelagic and littoral zones—in Lake Erken, Sweden. Littoral perch showed stronger individual specialization, but they also used resources from the pelagic zone, indicating their ability to couple habitats. In contrast, pelagic perch showed weaker individual specialization but near complete reliance on pelagic resources, indicating their preference to one habitat. This asymmetry in the habitat coupling ability of perch challenges the expectation that, in general, predators should stabilize spatially separated food webs. Our results suggest that habitat coupling might be constrained by morphological adaptations, which in this case were not related to genetic differentiation but were more likely related to differences in individual specialization.

Svanbäck, RichardUppsala universitet,Zooekologi(Swepub:uu)risva021 (författare)
Faulks, LeanneUppsala universitet,Zooekologi,Sugadaira Montane Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Sugadairakogen 1278-294, Ueda, Nagano 386-2204, Japan(Swepub:uu)leaka497 (författare)
Breed, Martin F.School of Biological Sciences and The Environment Institute, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, SA 5005, Australia (författare)
Scharnweber, KristinUppsala universitet,Limnologi(Swepub:uu)krisc419 (författare)
Zha, YinghuaUppsala universitet,Limnologi,Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, NKS BioClinicum, Solna, Sweden(Swepub:uu)yinzh506 (författare)
Eklöv, PeterUppsala universitet,Limnologi(Swepub:uu)peekl102 (författare)
Uppsala universitetLimnologi (creator_code:org_t)

Av författaren/redakt...: Marklund, Maria ...; Svanbäck, Richar ...; Faulks, Leanne; Breed, Martin F.; Scharnweber, Kri ...; Zha, Yinghua; visa fler...; Eklöv, Peter; visa färre...

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