Analyzing the Behavior of Benthic Fish Foraging in Shallow Lake as an Indicator of Ecosystem Health

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to look at how a fish that lives on the bottom eats in shallow lakes to see how healthy the ecosystem is. In this study, we argue that the way benthic fish hunt for food could be used to figure out how healthy shallow lake ecosystems are right now. In shallow lakes, the water may change from clear to cloudy, with sediment resuspension caused by benthivores eating benthic invertebrates. The giving-up-density (GUD) of benthic fish foraging in experimental patches may affect shallow lake ecosystems. GUD predicted bream's maximum height, indicating that short-term behaviour predicted long-term growth. Benthic fish differed across adjacent rich and poor patched but not between micropatches inside the same feeding patch. Benthic fish forage between our patch dimension and the tiny patch scale.Even though they are just a first step, the methods presented here should help estimate the likelihood of environmental state transitions and find the right steps to take to stop them.