Heterogeneity in prey distribution allows for higher food intake in planktivorous fish, particularly when hot

When prey are scarce, planktivorous fish and other predators feeding on tiny prey should forage within prey-rich patches to attain a net food intake above the ambient mean food concentrations. If they can indeed locate prey-rich patches efficiently, then a patchy distribution of planktonic prey should lead to: (1) an increase in the overall per capita food intake, and (2) greater variability among predators in prey-capture rate due to differences in arrival times. Both phenomena were observed in 34 daily feeding sessions with a cohort of juvenile rudd held in twin experimental systems, each housing the same number of fish free to move in a loop of ten interconnected 200-L tanks. The fish were fed daily with equal numbers of planktonic prey (Artemia nauplii), offered either in a homogeneous or patchy distribution. To simulate low and high temperatures that represent potential global warming scenarios, the feeding protocol was replicated at 16, 21 and 26 °C, on each occasion following a 3-day period of fish acclimation. Up to 40–70 % of fish in the system with the patchy prey distribution assembled rapidly in the high-prey-density tank, the capture rate of first arrivals being up to 60 prey min(−1) at 26 °C, orders of magnitude greater than that of latecomers. The overall capture rates were higher in the system with patchy prey, regardless of the temperature. At the highest temperature (26 °C), the fish located the high-prey-density tank in less than half the time taken at the lowest temperature (16 °C, Q(10) > 2).