TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid divergence of predator functional traits affects prey composition in aquatic communities
AU - Schmid, Dominik W.
AU - McGee, Matthew D.
AU - Best, Rebecca J.
AU - Seehausen, Ole
AU - Matthews, Blake
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by The University of Chicago.
PY - 2019/3/1
Y1 - 2019/3/1
N2 - Identifying traits that underlie variation in individual performance of consumers (i.e., trait utility) can help reveal the ecological causes of population divergence and the subsequent consequences for species interactions and community structure. Here, we document a case of rapid divergence (over the past 100 generations, or ∼150 years) in foraging traits and feeding efficiency between a lake and stream population pair of threespine stickleback. Building on predictions from functional trait models of fish feeding, we analyzed foraging experiments with a Bayesian path analysis and elucidated the traits explaining variation in foraging performance and the species composition of ingested prey. Despite extensive previous research on the divergence of foraging traits among populations and ecotypes of stickleback, our results provide novel experimental evidence of trait utility for jaw protrusion, gill raker length, and gill raker spacing when foraging on a natural zooplankton assemblage. Furthermore, we discuss how these traits might contribute to the differential effects of lake and stream stickleback on their prey communities, observed in both laboratory and mesocosm conditions. More generally, our results illustrate how the rapid divergence of functional foraging traits of consumers can impact the biomass, species composition, and trophic structure of prey communities.Keywords: trait utility, jaw protrusion, foraging performance, prey preference, rapid population divergence, Gasterosteus aculeatus.
AB - Identifying traits that underlie variation in individual performance of consumers (i.e., trait utility) can help reveal the ecological causes of population divergence and the subsequent consequences for species interactions and community structure. Here, we document a case of rapid divergence (over the past 100 generations, or ∼150 years) in foraging traits and feeding efficiency between a lake and stream population pair of threespine stickleback. Building on predictions from functional trait models of fish feeding, we analyzed foraging experiments with a Bayesian path analysis and elucidated the traits explaining variation in foraging performance and the species composition of ingested prey. Despite extensive previous research on the divergence of foraging traits among populations and ecotypes of stickleback, our results provide novel experimental evidence of trait utility for jaw protrusion, gill raker length, and gill raker spacing when foraging on a natural zooplankton assemblage. Furthermore, we discuss how these traits might contribute to the differential effects of lake and stream stickleback on their prey communities, observed in both laboratory and mesocosm conditions. More generally, our results illustrate how the rapid divergence of functional foraging traits of consumers can impact the biomass, species composition, and trophic structure of prey communities.Keywords: trait utility, jaw protrusion, foraging performance, prey preference, rapid population divergence, Gasterosteus aculeatus.
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U2 - 10.1086/701784
DO - 10.1086/701784
M3 - Article
C2 - 30794448
AN - SCOPUS:85060525931
SN - 0003-0147
VL - 193
SP - 331
EP - 345
JO - American Naturalist
JF - American Naturalist
IS - 3
ER -