Fauna of Yosemite National Park Lakes has Low Resistance but High Resilience to Fish Introductions

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Ecological Applications

Volume

15

Publication Date

1-1-2005

Keywords

fauna, Yosemite National Park, lakes, low resilience, high resilience, fish introductions

First Page

835

Last Page

847

Abstract

The ratio of the number of taxa observed at a site to that expected to occur in the absence of anthropogenic impacts (O/E) is an ecologically meaningful measure of the degree of faunal alteration. We used O/E ratios to describe the response by amphibian, reptile, benthic macroinvertebrate, and zooplankton taxa in originally fishless lakes in Yosemite National Park to the introduction and subsequent disappearance of nonnative fish. To quantify resistance (the degree to which a system is altered when the environment changes) and resilience (the degree to which a system returns to its previous configuration once the perturbation is removed), we compared O/E ratios between lakes that were never stocked, were previously stocked and still contained fish, or were previously stocked but had reverted to a fishless condition. On average, stocked-fish-present sites had 16% fewer taxa than never-stocked sites (O/E = 0.84 vs. 1.00, respectively). This statistically significant difference in O/E ratios indicates that native fauna had relatively low resistance to fish introductions. Resistance was inversely related to fish density and elevation, and directly related to water depth. Vulnerability to impacts of trout predation differed markedly between faunal groups, being high for amphibians, reptiles, conspicuous benthic invertebrates, and zooplankton and low for inconspicuous benthic invertebrates. O/E ratios in stocked-now-fishless sites were significantly higher (1.00) than those in stocked-fish-present sites and were not significantly different from those in never-stocked sites, indicating that this fauna had high resilience. For stocked-now-fishless sites, the relationship between the O/E ratio and the number of years since fish disappearance indicated that taxonomic composition recovered to closely resemble that of never-stocked lakes in less than two years following fish disappearance. Collectively, these results indicate that despite strong effects of an introduced predatory fish on community structure, these systems recover quickly and predictably following fish removal. Read More: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/04-0619

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