Shrimp stocking, salmon collapse, and eagle displacement: cascading interactions in the food web of a large aquatic ecosystem
Spencer CN, McClelland BR, Stanford JA. 1991. Shrimp stocking, salmon collapse, and eagle displacement: cascading interactions in the food web of a large aquatic ecosystem. BioScience. 41(1):14-21
In this article, we document particularly widespread changes cascading through the food web of the Flathead River-Lake ecosystem after the introduction of the opossum shrimp (Mysis relicta). Owing to predation by the shrimp, copepod and cladoceran zooplankton populations declined dramatically, contributing to the collapse of an important planktivorous fish population. Loss of this formerly abundant forage fish caused displacement of birds and mammals that had fed on them in an upstream tributary within Glacier National Park.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Spencer, Craig; McClelland, B; Stanford, Jack
- Units
- CRCO , GLAC
- Keywords
- Aquatic Ecosystem, Arthropod populations, Bald Eagle, Biodiversity, Copepods (Copepoda), Ecology, Ecosystem health, Fish, Fish Populations, food habitats, Food Web, Habitat Alteration, Impacts, Introduction (Species), Management, opossum shrimp (Mysis relicta), Trophic cascade, water fleas (Cladocera), Water Resources, Zooplankton