Interactions between non-native Western Mosquitofish and native Bluegill Sunfish: mesocosm experiments

These data are from two mesocosm experiments designed to assess the impacts of interspecific interactions, including both competition and predation, between invasive Western Mosquitofish and native Bluegill Sunfish. We manipulated the presence of Western Mosquitofish and Bluegill Sunfish in each experiment. In Experiment 2 we also manipulated the presence of vegetative structure. We measured numerous aspects of the fish, such as length, mass, survivorship, and recruitment. We also examined the response of zooplankton communities to the treatments.

Methods
These datasets were collected using standard mesocosm experiment methods. We measured the total length, body mass, and number of surviving fish at the beginning and the end of the experiment. We used these values to calculate changes in measurements over the course of the experiments. In addition, we regularly sampled the zooplankton communities over the course of the experiment identified zooplankton, and counted the number of individuals in each sample. 

The datasets have been proofed and in some cases, data were transformed for analysis (e.g., proportions were transformed).