Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator

Abstract Ecological speciation – whereby an ancestral founder species diversifies to fill vacant niches – is a phenomenon characteristic of newly formed ecosystems. Despite such ubiquity, ecosystem-level effects of such divergence remain poorly understood. Here, we compared the trophic niche of Euro...

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Autores principales:	Stephen M. Thomas, Chris Harrod, Brian Hayden, Tommi Malinen, Kimmo K. Kahilainen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2017
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/756ae4cb7b304243a49e121547f83861
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:756ae4cb7b304243a49e121547f838612021-12-02T11:41:11ZEcological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator10.1038/s41598-017-08263-92045-2322https://doaj.org/article/756ae4cb7b304243a49e121547f838612017-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08263-9https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Ecological speciation – whereby an ancestral founder species diversifies to fill vacant niches – is a phenomenon characteristic of newly formed ecosystems. Despite such ubiquity, ecosystem-level effects of such divergence remain poorly understood. Here, we compared the trophic niche of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) and their predators in a series of contrasting subarctic lakes where this species had either diversified into four ecomorphologically distinct morphs or instead formed monomorphic populations. We found that the trophic niche of whitefish was almost three times larger in the polymorphic than in the monomorphic lakes, due to an increase in intraspecific specialisation. This trophic niche expansion was mirrored in brown trout (Salmo trutta), a major predator of whitefish. This represents amongst the first evidence for ecological speciation directly altering the trophic niche of a predator. We suggest such mechanisms may be a common and important – though presently overlooked – factor regulating trophic interactions in diverse ecosystems globally.Stephen M. ThomasChris HarrodBrian HaydenTommi MalinenKimmo K. KahilainenNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Stephen M. Thomas Chris Harrod Brian Hayden Tommi Malinen Kimmo K. Kahilainen Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator
description	Abstract Ecological speciation – whereby an ancestral founder species diversifies to fill vacant niches – is a phenomenon characteristic of newly formed ecosystems. Despite such ubiquity, ecosystem-level effects of such divergence remain poorly understood. Here, we compared the trophic niche of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) and their predators in a series of contrasting subarctic lakes where this species had either diversified into four ecomorphologically distinct morphs or instead formed monomorphic populations. We found that the trophic niche of whitefish was almost three times larger in the polymorphic than in the monomorphic lakes, due to an increase in intraspecific specialisation. This trophic niche expansion was mirrored in brown trout (Salmo trutta), a major predator of whitefish. This represents amongst the first evidence for ecological speciation directly altering the trophic niche of a predator. We suggest such mechanisms may be a common and important – though presently overlooked – factor regulating trophic interactions in diverse ecosystems globally.
format	article
author	Stephen M. Thomas Chris Harrod Brian Hayden Tommi Malinen Kimmo K. Kahilainen
author_facet	Stephen M. Thomas Chris Harrod Brian Hayden Tommi Malinen Kimmo K. Kahilainen
author_sort	Stephen M. Thomas
title	Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator
title_short	Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator
title_full	Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator
title_fullStr	Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator
title_full_unstemmed	Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator
title_sort	ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/756ae4cb7b304243a49e121547f83861
work_keys_str_mv	AT stephenmthomas ecologicalspeciationinageneralistconsumerexpandsthetrophicnicheofadominantpredator AT chrisharrod ecologicalspeciationinageneralistconsumerexpandsthetrophicnicheofadominantpredator AT brianhayden ecologicalspeciationinageneralistconsumerexpandsthetrophicnicheofadominantpredator AT tommimalinen ecologicalspeciationinageneralistconsumerexpandsthetrophicnicheofadominantpredator AT kimmokkahilainen ecologicalspeciationinageneralistconsumerexpandsthetrophicnicheofadominantpredator
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Ecological speciation in a generalist consumer expands the trophic niche of a dominant predator

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