Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Resource limitation, competition and the influence of life history in a freshwater snail community

  • Original Papers
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Previous work on a snail community occurring throughout lakes in southwestern Michigan showed that predation by molluscivorous sunfish had large impacts on only the rarest snail species. Thus, competition might play a major role in population limitation because dominant members of the snail community are relatively immune to predation. The present experiments were conducted to determine the extent to which the snail community depleted the abundance of food resources (epiphytes) and the extent to which epiphyte abundances limited snail production. An experimental gradient in snail densities showed that removal of snails increased epiphyte biomass by approximately 3-fold relative to that observed at natural snail densities. Enrichment of the environment with phosphorus fertilizer increased epiphyte biomass by approximately 20-fold and provided a test of food limitation in the snail community. All snail taxa exhibited positive numerical or growth responses to enrichment. The observations that snails depleted resources and that resources limited snail production demonstrated that snails competed exploitatively for epiphytes. The response of each snail species to increased food abundance differed depending on the timing of fertilization relative to the snails' life histories. Snails hatched before the experiment began were larger in fertilized treatments, due to increased growth, but their densities were similar among treatments. On the other hand, densities of snails born during the experiment were up to 15-fold greater in fertilized treatments, due in part to increased survival of newborn snails. Comparison of the responses of snails to food addition and to predator removals (based on prior experiments) suggested that food availability limits snail production more than predators do. Additionally, the large responses by algae and snails to fertilization demonstrated that both the producers and herbivores in this simplified food chain were strongly resource limited.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Berg K, Ockelmann KW (1959) The respiration of freshwater snails. J Exp Bio 36:690–708

    Google Scholar 

  • Borchers P, Hutchings L (1986) Starvation tolerance, development time and egg production of Calanoides carinatus in the Southern Benguela Current. J Plankt Res 8:855–874

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks JL, Dodson SI (1965) Predation, body size, and composition of plankton. Science 150:28–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown KM (1979) The adaptive demography of four freshwater pulmonate snails. Evolution 33:417–432

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown KM (1982) Resource overlap and competition in pond snails: an experimental analysis. Ecology 63:412–422

    Google Scholar 

  • Burkholder JM (1986) Seasonal dynamics, alkaline phosphatase activity and phosphate uptake of adnate and loosely attached epiphytes in an oligotrophic lake. PhD Dissertation. Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell JH (1975) Some mechanisms producing structure in natural communities: a model and evidence from field experiments. In: Cody ML, Diamond J (eds) Ecology and evolution of communities. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp 460–490

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell JH (1983) On the prevalence and relative importance of interspecific competition: evidence from field experiments. Am Nat 122:661–696

    Google Scholar 

  • Crowder LB, Cooper WE (1982) Habitat structural complexity and the interaction between bluegills and their prey. Ecology 63:1802–1813

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuker BE (1983a) Competition and coexistence among the grazing snail Lymnaea, Chironomidae, and microcrustacea in an arctic epilithic lacustrine community. Ecology 64:10–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Cuker BE (1983b) Grazing and nutrient interactions in controlling the activity and composition of the epilithic algal community of an arctic lake. Limnol Oceanogr 28:133–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Dayton PK, Oliver JS (1980) An evaluation of experimental analyses of population and community patterns in benthic marine environments. In: Tenore KR, Coull BC (eds) Marine benthic dynamics. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina, pp 93–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg RM (1966) The regulation of density in a natural population of the pond snail, Lymnaea elodes. Ecology 47:889–906

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg RM (1970) The role of food in the regulation of the pond snail, Lymnaea elodes. Ecology 51:680–684

    Google Scholar 

  • Hairston NG, Smith FE, Slobodkin LB (1960) Community structure, population control, and competition. Am Nat 94:421–425

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall DJ, Cooper WE, Werner EE (1970) An experimental approach to the production dynamics and structure of freshwater animal communities. Limnol Oceanogr 15:839–928

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart DD (1987) Experimental studies of exploitative competition in a grazing stream insect. Oecologia 73:41–47

    Google Scholar 

  • heard WH (1963) Reproductive features of Valvata. Nautilus 77:64–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Hessen DO, Nilssen JP (1985) Factors controlling rotifer abundances in a norwegian eutrophic lake: an experimental study. Ann Limnol 21:97–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Higashi MT, Miura T, Tanimizu K, Iwasa Y (1981) Effect of the feeding activity of snails on the biomass and productivity of an algal community attached to a reed stem. Verh Int Verein Limnol 21:590–595

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill WR, Knight AW (1988) Concurrent grazing effects of two stream insects on periphyton. Limnol Oceanogr 33:15–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter RD (1980) Effects of grazing on the quantity and quality of freshwater aufwuchs. Hydrobiologia 69:251–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbert SH, Mulla MS (1981) Impacts of mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) predation on plankton communities. Hydrobiologia 83:125–151

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacoby JM (1985) Grazing effects on periphyton by Theodoxus fluviatilis (Gastropoda) in a lowland stream. J Freshwater Ecology 3:265–274

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffries MF, Lawton JH (1984) Enemy free space and the structure of ecological communities. Biol J Linn Soc 23:269–286

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerfoot WC, DeMott WR, Levitan C (1985) Nonlinearities in competitive interactions: component variables or system response? Ecology 66:959–965

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamberti GA, Resch VH (1983) Stream periphyton and insect herbivores: an experimental study of grazing by a caddisfly population. Ecology 64:1124–1135

    Google Scholar 

  • Leibold MA (1988) Habitat structure and trophic interactions in freshwater plankton communities. PhD Dissertation. Michigan State University. East Lansing, Michigan

    Google Scholar 

  • McQueen DJ, Post JR, Mills EL (1986) Trophic relations in freshwater pelagic ecosystems. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 43:1571–1581

    Google Scholar 

  • Menge BA, Sutherland JP (1976) Species diversity gradients: synthesis of the roles of predation, competition, and temporal, heterogeneity. Am Nat 110:351–369

    Google Scholar 

  • Menge BA, Sutherland JP (1987) Community regulation: variation in disturbance, competition, and predation in relation to environmental stress and recruitment. Am Nat 130:730–757

    Google Scholar 

  • Mittelbach GG (1988) Competition among refuging sunfishes and effects of fish density on littoral zone invertebrates. Ecology 69:614–623

    Google Scholar 

  • Neill WE, Peacock A (1980) Breaking the bottleneck: interactions of invertebrate predators and nutrients in oligotrophic lakes. In: Kerfoot WC (ed) Ecology and evolution of zooplankton communities. New England University Press, Hanover, pp 715–724

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicotri ME (1977) Grazing effects of four marine intertidal herbivores on the microflora. Ecology 58:1020–1032

    Google Scholar 

  • Oksanen L (1988) Ecosystem organization: mutualism and cybernetics or plain Darwinian struggle for existence? Am Nat 131:424–444

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver JD, Holeton GF, Chua KE (1979) Overwintering mortality of fingerling smallmouth bass in relation to size, energy stores, and environmental temperature. Trans Am Fish Soc 108:130–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Osenberg CW (1988) Body size and the interaction of fish predation and food limitation in a freshwater snail community. PhD Dissertation. Michigan State University. East Lansing, Michigan

    Google Scholar 

  • Osenberg CW, Werner EE, Mittelbach GG, Hall DJ (1988) Growth patterns in bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) and pumpkinseed (L. gibbosus) sunfish: environmental variation and the importance of ontogenic niche shifts. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 45:17–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Perron FE (1982) Inter- and intraspecific patterns of reproductive effort in four species of cone shell (Conus spp.). Mar Bio 68:161–167

    Google Scholar 

  • Persson L, Andersson G, Hamrin SF, Johansson L (1988) Predator regulation and primary productivity gradient of temperate lake ecosystems. In: Carpenter SR (ed) Complex interactions in lake communities, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson CH (1980) Predation, competitive exclusion, and diversity in the soft-sediment benthic communities of estuaries and lagoons. In: Livingston RJ (ed) Ecological processes in coastal and marine systems, Plenum Press, New York, pp 233–264

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinn JF, Dunham AE (1983) On hypothesis testing in ecology and evolution. Amer Natur 122:602–617

    Google Scholar 

  • Rich PH, Wetzel RG, Thuy NV (1971) Distribution, production and role of aquatic macrophytes in a southern Michigan marl lake. Freshw Biol 1:3–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell-Hunter WD, Eversole AG (1976) Evidence for tissue degrowth in starved freshwater pulmonate snails (Helisoma trivolvis) from tissue, carbon, and nitrogen analyses. Com Biochem Physiol 54A:447–453

    Google Scholar 

  • SAS Institute Inc (1985) SAS user's guide: statistics, version 5 edition. Cary, North Carolina

  • Schmitt RJ (1985) Competitive interactions of two mobile prey species in a patchy environment. Ecology 66:950–958

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoener TW (1982) The controversy over interspecific competition. Am Sci 70:586–595

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoener TW (1983) Field experiments on interspecific competition. Am Nat 122:240–285

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoener TW (1985) Some comments on Connell's and my reviews of field experiments on interspecific competition. Am Nat 125:730–740

    Google Scholar 

  • Shuter BJ, MacLean JA, Fry FEJ, Reiger HA (1980) Stochastic simulation of temperature effects on first-year survival of small-mouth bass. Trans Am Fish Soc 109:1–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Sih A, Crowley P, McPeek M, Petranka J, Strohmeier K (1985) Predation, competition, and prey communities a review of field experiments. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 16:269–311

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinclair ARE (1975) The resource limitation of trophic levels in tropical grassland ecosystems. J Anim Ecol 44:497–520

    Google Scholar 

  • Slobodkin LB, Smith FE, Hairston NG (1960) Regulation in terrestrial ecosystems, and the implied balance of nature. Am Nat 101:109–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Tessier AJ, Henry LL, Goulden CE (1983) Starvation in Daphnia: energy reserves and reproductive allocation. Limnol Ocenogr 28:667–676

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorp JH (1986) Two distinct roles for predators in freshwater assemblages. Oikos 47:75–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Threlkeld ST (1976) Starvation and the size structure of zooplankton communities. Freshw Biol 6:489–496

    Google Scholar 

  • Underwood AJ (1984) Vertical and seasonal patterns in competition for microalgae between intertidal gastropods. Oecologia 64:211–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanni MJ (1987) Effects of food availability and fish predation on a zooplankton community. Ecol Monogr 57:61–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Virnstein RW (1978) Predator caging experiments in soft sediments: caution advised. In: Wiley ML (ed) Estuarine Interactions. Academic Press, New York, pp 261–273

    Google Scholar 

  • White TCR (1978) The importance of a relative shortage of food in animal ecology. Oecologia 33:71–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiens JA (1977) On competition and variable environments. Am Sci 65:590–597

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaret (1980) Predation and freshwater communities. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Craig W. Osenberg

    Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of California, 93106, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, 49060, Hickory Corners, MI, USA

    Craig W. Osenberg

  2. Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, 49060, Hickory Corners, MI, USA

    Craig W. Osenberg

Authors
  1. Craig W. Osenberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Osenberg, C.W. Resource limitation, competition and the influence of life history in a freshwater snail community. Oecologia 79, 512–519 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00378669

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00378669

Key words

Search

Navigation