Aquatic vegetation promotes prey diversity but not the diversification of predator phenotypes.
9 affiliations
- 1School of Earth & Sustainability, Northern Arizona University , Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA.
- 2Department of Biology and General Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in Zvolen , Zvolen 960 01, Slovakia.
- 3Department of Forest Ecology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences , Prague, Praha-Suchdol 165 00, Czechia.
- 4Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences , Bratislava 845 23, Slovakia.
- 5Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology , Kastanienbaum 6047, Switzerland.
- 6Florida Museum of Natural History , Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
- 7Centre for Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Changes, Universidade de Lisboa , Lisbon 1749-016, Portugal.
- 8Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, University of Aveiro , Aveiro 3810-193, Portugal.
- 9Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern , Bern, BE 3012, Switzerland.
Abstract
Freshwater fish have evolved to forage in a range of habitats, from open water in lakes to benthic shorelines and streams. Much research has focused on how prey differences, such as zooplankton versus benthic macroinvertebrates, might select for divergence in predator traits across this habitat gradient. However, major structural components of this habitat contrast, such as aquatic vegetation, may fundamentally constrain foraging success. Here, we used a mesocosm experiment to test for interactive effects of vegetated habitat and fish density on the survival and growth of phenotypically variable juvenile sticklebacks. We investigated two scales of phenotypic variation: distinct lake and stream ecotypes and F2 lake-stream hybrids. We found that macrophytes strongly increased invertebrate biomass and functional richness, which increased average fish condition. Surprisingly, the relative performance of contrasting ecotypes and genotypes depended only on fish density. Stream ecotypes had higher survival than lake ecotypes, as well as higher condition. In parallel, F2 hybrids had higher growth when homozygous for stream alleles at three quantitative trait loci. Together, these findings suggest that adaptive divergence among habitats depends on the ways that prey type, habitat structure, and genetic variation for feeding and growth traits combine with competition to limit the abundance of accessible prey.
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BibTeX
@article{best2026aquatic,
title = {{Aquatic vegetation promotes prey diversity but not the diversification of predator phenotypes.}},
author = {Rebecca J Best and Marek Svitok and Moritz D Lürig and Cameron M Hudson and Vladimíra D Carreira and Milan Novikmec and Miguel C Leal and Ole Seehausen and Philine G D Feulner and Blake Matthews},
journal = {Proceedings. Biological sciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1098/rspb.2026.1458},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42869477},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Aquatic vegetation promotes prey diversity but not the diversification of predator phenotypes.
AU - Rebecca J Best
AU - Marek Svitok
AU - Moritz D Lürig
AU - Cameron M Hudson
AU - Vladimíra D Carreira
AU - Milan Novikmec
AU - Miguel C Leal
AU - Ole Seehausen
AU - Philine G D Feulner
AU - Blake Matthews
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Proceedings. Biological sciences
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2026.1458
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42869477
AB - Freshwater fish have evolved to forage in a range of habitats, from open water in lakes to benthic shorelines and streams. Much research has focused on how prey differences, such as zooplankton versus benthic macroinvertebrates, might select for divergence in predator traits across this habitat gradient. However, major structural components of this habitat contrast, such as aquatic vegetation, may fundamentally constrain foraging success. Here, we used a mesocosm experiment to test for interactive effects of vegetated habitat and fish density on the survival and growth of phenotypically variable juvenile sticklebacks. We investigated two scales of phenotypic variation: distinct lake and stream ecotypes and F2 lake-stream hybrids. We found that macrophytes strongly increased invertebrate biomass and functional richness, which increased average fish condition. Surprisingly, the relative performance of contrasting ecotypes and genotypes depended only on fish density. Stream ecotypes had higher survival than lake ecotypes, as well as higher condition. In parallel, F2 hybrids had higher growth when homozygous for stream alleles at three quantitative trait loci. Together, these findings suggest that adaptive divergence among habitats depends on the ways that prey type, habitat structure, and genetic variation for feeding and growth traits combine with competition to limit the abundance of accessible prey.
SN - 0962-8452
SN - 1471-2954
ER -