Interspecific Competition and Population Control in Freshwater Fish

Abstract

Interspecific competition is defined as the demand of more than one organism for the same resource of the environment in excess of immediate supply. When two species are "competing for a niche" the term competition has been used to include phenomena such as predation of the two species on each other, competition to avoid a parasite, etc. Making this distinction in natural situations is unrealistic. In the limited sense in which interspecific competition is defined above, it is a discrete phenomenon, which with other phenomena such as predation, can be measured as a factor involved in interaction between species.Freshwater environments offer comparatively few opportunities for specialization in fishes. In consequence many species have a relatively wide tolerance of habitat type, a flexibility of feeding habits and in general share many resources of their environment with several other species of fish. Cannibalism and mutual predation are common complications of competitive relationships between species. The organization of freshwater fish communities is thus characterized by breadth at each level of the food chain rather than by a height of a pyramid of numbers. Flexible growth rate and high reproductive potential permit fish populations to tide over unfavorable periods of competition. In these circumstances it is difficult to separate the role of interspecific competition from other phenomena as a factor of population control. As a subordinate factor, predisposing fish to loss from other causes, interspecific competition may act to influence population levels. There is need for quantitative data and mathematical models for study of the types of population interaction typical in freshwater fish associations.