The management of fish populations often requires an understanding of how density‐dependent effects influence population dynamics. In systems where natural populations are supplemented with stocking, the question of “how much food is available” becomes increasingly important. One typical approach for assessing density‐dependent interactions is to identify disparities between fish consumption rates and food availability. The objective of our study was to determine whether seasonal lake prey production could support Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis consumption demand in Owhi Lake, Washington, at observed abundances. Brook Trout were collected seasonally from 2015 to 2017 to obtain information on length, weight, age, diet, growth, and mortality. Population abundance was estimated in summer by using hydroacoustic surveys. Littoral invertebrates and pelagic zooplankton were collected concurrently with fish to enumerate biomass and production. Bioenergetics modeling was used to estimate prey consumption by Brook Trout. In conjunction with supply–demand comparisons, we used growth efficiencies and maximum consumption rates to further identify potential seasonal and annual food limitations. Our results suggest that prey production could support Brook Trout consumption demand for all years, but littoral invertebrate consumption was close to or exceeded prey production in summer and fall 2017. Growth efficiency was lowest and maximum consumption rates were highest in summer 2017 relative to all other seasons and years. In addition to observed diet switching from littoral invertebrates to zooplankton in summer 2016 and 2017, we concluded that lower growth efficiencies, lower annual survival rates, and increased consumption rates were influenced by littoral invertebrate production. The Owhi Lake Brook Trout stocking program may require adaptive management (i.e., annual evaluations) to balance natural recruitment.

中文翻译：

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利用生物能学对华盛顿州奥威湖的布鲁克鳟鱼的承载能力进行建模

鱼类种群的管理通常需要了解密度依赖性效应如何影响种群动态。在以自然种群为补充的系统中，“有多少食物”的问题变得越来越重要。评估依赖密度的相互作用的一种典型方法是查明鱼类消费率与粮食供应之间的差异。我们研究的目的是确定季节性湖猎物的生产是否可以支持布鲁克鳟鱼Salvelinus fontinalis华盛顿Owhi湖的消费需求处于观察到的丰度。从2015年到2017年按季节收集Brook Trout，以获取有关身长，体重，年龄，饮食，生长和死亡率的信息。夏季，通过水声调查估算了人口数量。与鱼类同时采集沿岸无脊椎动物和上层浮游动物，以计算生物量和产量。Brook Trout使用生物能学模型来估计猎物的消耗量。结合供求比较，我们使用了增长效率和最大消耗率来进一步确定潜在的季节性和年度食物限制。我们的结果表明猎物生产可以满足所有年份的布鲁克鳟鱼消费需求，但沿海无脊椎动物的消费量在2017年夏季和秋季接近或超过猎物生产。与其他所有季节和年份相比，2017年夏季的增长效率最低，最大消费率最高。除了在2016年和2017年夏季观察到的饮食结构从沿海无脊椎动物向浮游动物的转变外，我们得出的结论是，沿海无脊椎动物的生产会影响较低的生长效率，较低的年生存率和增加的食用率。Owhi Lake Brook Trout的放养计划可能需要自适应管理（即年度评估）以平衡自然招聘。沿海无脊椎动物生产影响了消费率的增长。Owhi Lake Brook Trout的放养计划可能需要自适应管理（即年度评估）以平衡自然招聘。沿海无脊椎动物生产影响了消费率的增长。Owhi Lake Brook Trout的放养计划可能需要自适应管理（即年度评估）以平衡自然招聘。