Just out of interest (or not as the case may be!), a very large proportion
of the nutrition available to fish from small depauperate forest streams is
derived from allochthonous sources (i.e. arthropods falling out of the
forest canopy etc. etc.).
Most of what I've read on the subject refers to rain forest streams,
courtesy of Michael Goulding et al, but I suppose the same applies to acidic
temperate environments.
We have populations of Trout over here, from highly unproductive streams
that originate on acid peat moorland, that are fully mature at around 6
inches because of their reliance on allochthonous nutrition.
Pete.
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