Behavioural diversification in brook charr: adaptive responses to local conditions

1. Recently emerged brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis Mitchill) foraging in still-water pools along the sides of streams exhibit conspicuous variation in foraging behaviour. Some charr are sedentary and eat crustaceans from the lower portion of the water column. Others are mobile and eat insects from the upper portion of the water column. This study examines whether this behavioural diversification represents potentially adaptive responses made by individuals to local environmental conditions. 2. Four models were constructed to predict how the ratio of mobile to sedentary charr was expected to change with pool morphometry, and how the location and orientation of mobile and sedentary charr were expected to differ within pools. The models assumed the charr forage competitively, but each model differed in assumptions regarding which features of pool morphometry determine the availability of the two main prey types. A spatial constraint hypothesis also was considered. 3. Findings from this study support the hypothesis that the divergent foraging tactics represent adaptive adjustments made by individual charr in response to competition for spatially separated food sources. Variation in the numbers of sedentary and mobile charr across pools, and spatial distributions of the charr and their crustacean and insect prey within pools, were most consistent with a model assuming that the availability of insect prey, and hence the number of mobile charr, was determined by the pool surface area while the availability of crustacean prey, and hence the number of sedentary charr, was determined by the pool perimeter. 4. Parallels between this pool system and polymorphic fish populations in larger lake systems identifies a potential link between the adaptive decision making of individuals and the spatial and phenotypic divergence of populations in response to spatial heterogeneity in food resources.