Fish Production Correlated with Primary Productivity, not the Morphoedaphic Index

Estimates of the biological production of entire lake fish communities were collected from the published literature on lakes covering a wide range of geographic areas and trophic status. Correlation analysis shows that fish production is uncorrected with the morphoedaphic index (p > 0.05) but closely correlated with annual phytoplankton production (r2 = 0.79), mean total phosphorus concentration (r2 = 0.67), and annual average fish standing stock (r2 = 0.67). Empirically derived regression equations are presented and compared with previous models based on catch and yield data. Analysis of these equations suggests that conversion of phytoplankton into fish production is 100 times more efficient in oligotrophic lakes than hyper-eutrophic ones, but that a much lower fraction of fish production can be channeled to sustainable yield in oligotrophic lakes. Sustained yields were frequently as little as 10% of the annual community fish production.