Food Web Interactions Associated with a Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Reintroduction Effort in an Alpine Lake

To understand Fallen Leaf Lake food web interactions between nonnative species that prey on or compete with reintroduced LCT a combination of stomach content and stable isotope analyses was used to evaluate trophic characteristics within the aquatic species assemblage. LCT preyed on a variety of prey resources: mysid shrimp, insects, arthropods, signal crayfish and fishes. Diet overlap was greatest between L CT and Mountain Whitefish and both species exhibit a general feeding strategy that allows them to partition prey resources to avoid competitive interactions. Predation by Lake and Brown Tout on stocked LCT was observed and should be considered in the context of predator management.