DOI: 10.5061/dryad.55c84q7
title: Data from: Life at the top: lake ecotype influences the foraging patterns, metabolic costs and life history of an apex fish predator

description: 1.We used acoustic telemetry and acceleration sensors to compare
 population-specific measures of the metabolic costs of an apex fish
 predator living in four separate lakes. We chose our study species and
 populations to provide a strong test of recent theoretical predictions
 that optimal foraging by an apex fish predator in a typical aquatic
 environment would be consistent with feeding to satiation rather than
 continuous feeding. We chose four populations where the primary prey type
 differed along a body size gradient (from small invertebrates to large
 planktivorous fish) and along a thermal accessibility gradient (from
 easily accessible coldwater pelagic prey to less accessible warmwater
 epilimnetic and littoral prey). We expected that these gradients in prey
 type would evoke distinctly different activity gradients depending on
 whether predators fed to satiation (e.g. less frequent ‘rest’ detections
 where primary prey are smaller/less accessible) or fed continuously (e.g.
 fixed level of ‘rest’ detections under all prey conditions). 2. Our study
 organism was a fall spawning, coldwater visual apex predator (lake trout).
 Therefore, we focused our study on diel (early night, dawn, day, dusk,
 late night) changes in metabolic costs associated with summer feeding
 behaviour. The duration (~20 days) and fine temporal scale (~30 minutes)
 of our behavioural data provided a uniquely detailed picture of intra- and
 inter-population differences in activity patterns over a critical period
 in the annual growing season. 3. In all populations, diel shifts in
 activity were qualitatively consistent with that expected of a visual
 predator (e.g. resting state detections were most frequent at night). 4.
 Between-lake differences in daytime thermal experience were qualitatively
 consistent with between-lake differences in the location of primary prey
 (e.g. excursions to warm habitats were common in lakes with
 epilimnetic/littoral fish as primary prey and relatively rare in lakes
 with pelagic coldwater invertebrates/fish as primary prey). 5. Daytime
 activity patterns were consistent with feeding to satiation rather than
 continuous feeding: (a) individuals in all four populations exhibited
 clearly delineated bouts of resting behaviour and active behaviour; (b)
 the frequency of resting bouts and the resultant overall cost of daily
 activity were strongly associated with the size and accessibility of prey
 – in lakes with smaller and/or less accessible prey, predators rested less
 frequently, exhibited marginally higher costs when active and had higher
 overall daytime activity costs. Within each lake, similar changes in
 activity occurred concurrently with diel changes in prey
 accessibility/relative density.
description: Raw Data for the
 Bioenergetics CalculationsThese data were
 collected using acoustic telemetry on wild lake trout living in two
 regions in Ontario, Canada: the Experimental Lakes Area, and Algonquin
 Provincial Park. All data were collected during the summer months of 2010
 and 2011, as described in the main text of the
 manuscript.bioenergetics_data.csvRaw data on size, sex, and age of lake trout in ELARaw data collected at the Experimental Lakes Area containing the sizes, ages, and sexes of lake trout over the years 2009, 2010, and 2011ELA_size_sex_age.csvSizes and ages of lake trout fish from Algonquin ParkRaw data collected on lake trout in Algonquin Provincial Park with sizes and ages of fish from lakes Louisa and Opeongo. Details are described in the associated manuscript.Algonquin_size_age.csvLake trout data on size and sex in Algonquin ParkRaw data collected from lake trout in Algonquin Provincial Park with sizes and sex of fish from Lakes Louisa and Opeongo. Details are described in the associated manuscript.Algonquin_size_sex.csv