Small- and Large-scale Studies in Fisheries Ecology: The Need for Cooperation among Researchers

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Abstract
Studies of species composition and abundance or biomass in fish communities in small lakes (i.e., non-Great Lakes) vary in environmental, temporal, and taxonomic scales. Abiotic variation, the duration of data collection, and the number of species examined limit the general “picture” of communities. A survey of 12 years of publications focusing on patterns within fish communities reveals two distinct types of studies: (1) small taxonomic and small environmental scale studies (i.e., complex interaction, population approach where fish abundance, yield, or growth rates are measured) and (2) large taxonomic and large environmental scale studies (i.e., assemblage survey, community approach where only species presence/absence is measured). Both study scales are well suited to answer important ecological questions, but neither approach is appropriate to examine the relative influence of abiotic and biotic processes on fish density and yield—information that is necessary for creating large-scale manageme...

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