Seasonal effects of variable recruitment of a dominant piscivore on pelagic food web structure.
Piscivorous fish play an important role in regulating lake food web structure.
However, most ultimately piscivorous fish pass through a period of planktivory before becoming piscivorous. The 1993 and 1994 cohorts were the largest recorded in data extending back to 1984 and occurred during a period in which adult and juvenile bass biomass was low. As large cladocerans declined, small cladocerans, especially Bosmina longirostris , increased. By early September the biomass of B. longirostris was similar to that of the entire cladoceran community in previous years.