When a river is affected by a reservoir: Trophic interactions and flexibility in feeding strategies of alpine bullhead (Cottus poecilopus) and European bullhead (Cottus gobio)

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F19%3A00108987" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/19:00108987 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718339391?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718339391?via%3Dihub</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.068" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.068</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

When a river is affected by a reservoir: Trophic interactions and flexibility in feeding strategies of alpine bullhead (Cottus poecilopus) and European bullhead (Cottus gobio)

Original language description

The alpine bullhead and European bullhead are benthic fish species protected by law in several European countries. One of the problems of European rivers is the ever-increasing number of reservoirs, which has adverse impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Feeding ecology of both species evaluated separately has been a subject of several studies, however, none of the studies paid attention to feeding interactions between them. Thus, the aims of the study were to evaluate trophic interactions of the two bullhead species and to assess their ability to cope with environmental disturbances caused by a reservoir. The study area consisted of three sites on the river Cierny Vah (Slovakia) that differed from each other by the intensity of pressures posed by the reservoir. The two species were found to coexist at two sites below the reservoir, because the reservoir affected their distribution along the river. For alpine bullhead, chironomid, hydropsychid and baetid larvae were the most important prey items, whereas the diet spectrum of European bullhead contained hydropsychid, chironomid larvae and detritus. Differences in diet composition were found among sampling sites. Temporal variations in the diet composition demonstrated that alpine bullhead is a more flexible feeder than European bullhead. Being predominantly food generalists, both species were able to shift their feeding strategies towards specialization when exposed to environmental disturbances at the most affected site. The reservoir increased the diet overlap between the two species, and thus changed their trophic interactions. Both alpine bullhead and European bullhead managed to cope with environmental disturbances caused by the reservoir, however, in lower population densities. Moreover, the reduced diversity of resources increased the potential for trophic competition between them.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Science of the Total Environment

ISSN

0048-9697

e-ISSN

1879-1026

Volume of the periodical

651

Issue of the periodical within the volume

February

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

10

Pages from-to

1903-1912

UT code for WoS article

000450551600025

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85054574575