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Food Interrelationships of Salmon, Trout, Alewives, and Smelt in a Maine Lake
Author(s) -
Lackey Robert T.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1969)98[641:fiosta]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - smelt , salvelinus , trout , fishery , biology , predation , forage fish , ecology , fish <actinopterygii>
Food habits of landlocked salmon (Salmo salar), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), landlocked alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus), and American smelt (Osmerus mordax) were studied in Echo Lake, Mount Desert Island, Maine, from June, 1967, to May, 1968. Landlocked alewives were introduced into Echo Lake as adults taken from Cayuga Lake, New York, in 1966. Annual salmon diet consisted of invertebrates (mainly insects) and several forage fishes [alewives, smelt, sticklebacks, (Pungitius pungitius), and killifish (Fundulus diaphanus)]. Smelt were eaten during the entire year, killifish and sticklebacks during summer, and alewives only during spring. Brook trout had similar food habits except that sticklebacks were used throughout the year, and invertebrates constituted a higher proportion of their overall diet. Brook trout fed heavily on isopods (Asellus sp.) during winter and early spring. Alewives fed extensively on plankton with insects constituting important food only during summer months. Smelt utilized a higher proportion of insects and isopods than did alewives, but fed mainly on plankton. Landlocked alewives were utilized only to a limited extent by salmon and brook trout, but would likely be preyed upon more heavily by larger fish.