Predictability of multispecies competitive interactions in three populations of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar.

Juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar from three allopatric populations (LaHave, Sebago and Saint-Jean) were placed into artificial streams with combinations of four non-native salmonids: brown trout Salmo trutta, rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch. Non-additive effects, as evidenced by lower performance than predicted from weighted summed two-species competition trials, were detected for S. salar fork length (LF ) and mass, but not for survival, condition factor or riffle use. These data support emerging theory on niche overlap and species richness as factors that can lead to non-additive competition effects.