Recent Changes in the Aquatic Food Web of Eastern Lake Ontario

Abstract

During the past 10 yr there have been dramatic increases in piscivorous populations of walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) in the Bay of Quinte and of planted lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) and double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the Kingston basin of Lake Ontario. This paper documents changes in the prey stocks shared by these piscivores, including reduction in size and abundance of the slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus) with subsequent stock equilibration and unabated reduction in the size and abundance of rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax), both owing to predation pressure from the lake trout. The third primary prey species, alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), has not yet suffered severely from the depredations of the piscivores. Symptoms of the effects are discernible, however, and the implications of a possible collapse are discussed. Lake trout survival and growth have not yet been affected by the changes in prey availability, but their diet has shifted both in response to their own expanded size composition and relative abundance of the three prey species. Increased utilization of alewife makes the hunting of the trout more pelagic. Problems of obtaining representative samples of the prey are discussed.