Impact of juvenile cyprinid fish predation on the food availability and zooplankton community

Tátrai, István and Padisák, Judit and Aschot, Simonian (1991) Impact of juvenile cyprinid fish predation on the food availability and zooplankton community. In: Congress in Munich 1989, 1989, München, Germany.

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Abstract

In freshwater pelagic systems predators limit prey populations. Several studies suggest that at the top of the food web piscivores can have a strong, negative impact on planktivores (Stewart et al. 1981, Van Densen 1985). At the next level in the food web planktivores have a major impact on the size structure and species composition of zooplankton communities (Hrbacek 1962, Hall et al. 1976, Vijverberg & Richter 1982). The effects of food web manipulations on phytoplankton dynamics are not always evident (Dorazio et al. 1987). Starvation and/or predation may eliminate any possibility of grazer control of algal populations (McQueen & Post 1988). Since copepods dominate the zooplankton in Lake Balaton during summer (Zánkai & Ponyi 1986) and exhibit much lower grazing rates then Daphnia-dominated assemblages in other lakes, we decided to determine experimentally if the zooplankton in eutrophic Lake Balaton were capable of controlling phytoplankton biomass in the offshore region of the lake.

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