Abstract

A positive relationship between occupancy and average local abundance of species is found in a variety of taxa, yet the mechanisms driving this association between abundance and occupancy are still enigmatic. Here we show that freshwater fishes exhibit a positive abundance-occupancy relationship across 125 Swedish lakes. For a subset of 9 species from 11 lakes, we estimated species-specific diet breadth from stable isotopes, within-lake habitat breadth from catch data for littoral and pelagic nets, adaptive potential from genetic diversity, abiotic niche position, and dispersal capacity. Average local abundance was mainly positively associated with both within-lake habitat and diet breadth, that is, species with larger intraspecific variation in niche space had higher abundances. No measure was a good predictor of occupancy, indicating that occupancy may be more directly related to abundance or abiotic conditions than to niche breadth per se. This study suggests a link between intraspecific niche variation and a positive abundance-occupancy relationship and implies that management of freshwater fish communities, whether to conserve threatened or control invasive species, should initially be aimed at niche processes.

Keywords

amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP); conservation; distribution; habitat generalism; local-regional scale; stable isotopes

Published in

American Naturalist
2015, Volume: 186, number: 2, pages: 272-283
Publisher: UNIV CHICAGO PRESS

SLU Authors

• Ragnarsson Stabo, Henrik

  • Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG14 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development


UKÄ Subject classification

Ecology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/682004

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/75577