Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Maine
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Introduced fishes can re-structure foodwebs, altering the flow of energy to other species and altering the subsidies that link aquatic systems to neighboring terrestrial habitats. These patterns are not always predictable, because they are the result of interactions with the other species present. The ponds within Acadia National Park have varied fish communities based on local conditions, stocking history, and fishing pressures. The resultant unique compositions, including native and introduced fishes, allows for the opportunity to examine both whether we observe consistent foodweb impacts for commonly invasive fishes and how those impacts are translating to effects on emergent aquatic insects available as subsidies to terrestrial fauna.