LIMITING SIMILARITY FOR COEXISTENCE OF LAKE HERRING (COREGONUS-ARTEDII) AND CHUBS (COREGONUS-HOYI)

A simple food competition model was applied to calculate the limiting similarity for coexistence of lake herring and chubs in Lake Superior in terms of mortality and diet overlap. The results indicate that spec ies can coexist over a wide range of diet overlap and mortality. In co mmunities with high diet overlap change in mortality could have an eff ect on the outcome of competition, whereas in other communities the sp ecies would continue to coexist but with changes in relative abundance s of species. The outcome of competition between lake herring and chub s was simulated with a moderate diet overlap which allows coexistence with a large increase in lake herring mortality. The patterns in the s imulated abundances were similar to the patterns in the catch per unit of effort data. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.