Energy‐based top‐down and bottom‐up relationships between fish community energy demand or production and phytoplankton across lakes at a continental scale

Bartrons, Mireia; Mehner, Thomas; Argillier, Christine; Beklioglu, Meryem; Blabolil, Petr; Hesthagen, Trygve; Holmgren, Kerstin; Jeppesen, Erik; Krause, Teet; Podgornik, Samo; Volta, Pietro; Winfield, Ian J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9296-5114; Brucet, Sandra. 2020 Energy‐based top‐down and bottom‐up relationships between fish community energy demand or production and phytoplankton across lakes at a continental scale. Limnology and Oceanography, 65 (4). 892-902. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11434

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/lno.11434

Abstract/Summary

Fish community feeding and production rates may differ between lakes despite similar fish biomass levels because of differences in size structure and local temperature. Therefore, across‐lake comparisons of the strength and direction of top‐down and bottom‐up fish–phytoplankton relationships should consider these factors. We used the metabolic theory of ecology to calculate size‐ and temperature‐corrected community energy demand (CEDom) and community production (CP) of omnivorous fishes in 227 European lakes from major habitat types (MHTs) of polar freshwaters, temperate floodplain rivers and wetlands, and temperate coastal rivers. We related CEDom with total phosphorus (TP)‐corrected chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations to evaluate a potential top‐down directed trophic cascade from fish to phytoplankton. Furthermore, we related Chl a with CP to demonstrate potential bottom‐up effects of phytoplankton on fish. For both analyses, we added the CED of piscivorous fishes (CEDpi) as a predictor to account for potential predation effects on the omnivorous fish community. CEDom was weakly positively related with TP‐corrected Chl a, but the strength of the relationship differed between MHTs. In contrast, CP was consistently positively related with Chl a in the entire dataset. CEDpi did not contribute to top‐down or bottom‐up relationships. The application of metabolic variables characterizing fish community feeding and production rates makes these results robust because the approach accounted for the usually neglected effects of fish size and temperature in across‐lake comparisons. Our results suggest that bottom‐up effects from phytoplankton on fish secondary production in lakes are substantially stronger than top‐down effects from fish on phytoplankton biomass.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11434
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Unaffiliated
ISSN:	0024-3590
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment
Date made live:	11 May 2020 12:57 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527670

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.11434

UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:

Unaffiliated

ISSN:

0024-3590

NORA Subject Terms:

Ecology and Environment

Date made live:

11 May 2020 12:57 +0 (UTC)