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Science 11 February 1972:
Vol. 175. no. 4022, pp. 639 - 641
DOI: 10.1126/science.175.4022.639
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Articles

Ecosystem Alteration by Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) Predation

Stuart H. Hurlbert 1, Joy Zedler 1, and Deborah Fairbanks 1

1 Department of Biology, San Diego State College, San Diego, California

In artificial pools Gambusia affinis greatly reduced rotifer, crustacean, and insect populations and thus permitted extraordinary development of phytoplankton populations (2x108 cells per milliliter). Other effects included decreased optical transmissivity and increased temperature of the water, decreased amounts of dissolved inorganic phosphorus, and increased amounts of dissolved organic phosphorus, inhibition of Spirogyra, and replacement of one annelid, Chaetogaster, by another, Aeolosoma.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Species Introduction in a Tropical Lake: A newly introduced piscivore can produce population changes in a wide range of trophic levels.
T. M. Zaret and R. T. Paine (1973)
Science 182, 449-455
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