If stocked perch remain in their juvenile feeding stage too long, what common negative impact occurs in the lake ecosystem?
Answer
They exert top-down pressure on the zooplankton community
For fisheries managers, the growth trajectory of stocked perch is vital. If the population remains dominated by individuals stuck in the juvenile feeding stage, they continue to feed heavily on zooplankton. This unchecked consumption results in significant top-down pressure, meaning they consume the zooplankton faster than it can reproduce or recover. This depletion of the foundational food web component can negatively affect numerous other species dependent on those same microscopic organisms, signaling a potential imbalance or over-population issue that hasn't yet been corrected by natural predation.
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