Short-term apparent mutualism drives responses of aquatic prey to increasing productivity.

ABSTRACT: According to apparent competition theory, sharing a predator should cause indirect interactions among prey that can affect the structure and the dynamics of natural communities. Though shifts in prey dominance and predator resource use along environmental gradients are rather common, empirical evidence on the role of indirect prey-prey interactions through shared predation particularly with increasing productivity, is still scarce. In an 8-week lake mesocosm experiment, we manipulated both the addition of inorganic nutrients and the presence of generalist fish predators (crucian carp, Carassius carassius L.), to test for the effects of indirect interactions through shared predation along a productivity gradient. We found that apparent mutualism (indirect positive interaction) between benth

SUBMITTER: Chaguaceda F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8048462 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature