Life history and large-scale habitat use of brown trout (Salmo trutta) and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) — implications for species replacement patterns

Abstract

Simple models of temperature-mediated interference competition have generally failed to explain salmonid species replacement patterns along altitudinal gradients, a fact that emphasizes the need to link individual features and their relation to habitat characteristics to population-level dynamics. We compared life history parameters in stream-resident populations of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) in eight boreal streams. By use of electrofishing data from 1000 sites, we analyzed and related differences in life history traits to habitat- and interaction-related patterns of growth and densities of brook and brown trout, respectively. Brown trout were competitively dominant throughout the size span of sampled sympatric sites and lowered growth rates in sympatry were mainly caused by environmental factors, revealing a link between brook trout invasions and habitat-related limitations on brown trout performance. Still, the frequency of allopatric brook trout sites increased in the smallest watersheds, indicating that localities with a high degree of brook trout dominance rarely sustain brown trout over time. Brook trout populations had higher turnover rates and proportions of mature females than brown trout populations. Our results suggest growth potential and its effect on population fecundity as a critical factor limiting competitive ability and distribution of brown trout in Swedish brook trout dominated headwaters.