Trophic Niche Width and Overlap of Three Benthic Living Fish Species in Poyang Lake: a Stable Isotope Approach

Wang, Yuyu; Zhang, Huan; Chen, Yuwei; Zhang, Lu; Lei, Guangchun

doi:10.1007/s13157-018-0995-8

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…An occupied niche space implies resource utilization; moreover, understanding the factors that lead to changes in trophic niches is important in assessing food web structures (Yao et al, 2016), resource utilization (Ortega-Cisneros et al, 2017), and trophic interactions (Wallace et al, 2009). Different predators may occupy similar trophic niches, and the trophic overlaps indicate similar diets in freshwater ecosystems (Chen et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2019). Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes have been proven to effectively quantify niches and niche overlaps of species (Post, 2002;Bearhop et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the trophic niche characteristics of four carnivorous Cultrinae fish species in Lihu Lake, Taihu Basin, China

Wang

Liu

et al. 2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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This study found significant differences between the standard length distributions of humpback and redfin culter and between Mongolian culter and topmouth culter. A stable isotope analysis (δ13C and δ15N) was used to investigate the interspecies differences between the feeding habits and trophic niches of four carnivorous species of Cultrinae fish. The results showed that the δ13C and δ15N values were significantly correlated with the standard length and species. However, the δ13C values of humpback and redfin culter were not significantly different, suggesting that these two fish species had similar food sources. The δ15N values of Mongolian culter and topmouth culter were the highest, suggesting that they occupied a higher trophic level and that animal prey was more important in their diets. Moreover, variations in δ13C and δ15N indicated considerable niche overlap and interspecific competition among the four species. We also evaluated trophic niches, diversity, redundancy, and evenness utilizing isotopic niche metrics, and we estimated asymmetrical niche overlaps. The analysis revealed that four carnivorous species of Cultrinae displayed similar trophic niche sizes and trophic diversity. The trophic traits of topmouth culter clearly defined them as a trophic generalist in terms of the inter-individual variability in their isotopic niches. A significant finding was that the average niche overlap between them was as high as 64.02%; topmouth culter had the greatest trophic overlap with redfin culter (95.52%) and humpback (90.38%), followed by Mongolian culter onto redfin culter (85.32%), indicating that topmouth culter and Mongolian culter benefit the most from the food supply in the habitat, or they are more competitive in the presence of limited resources.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the trophic niche characteristics of four carnivorous Cultrinae fish species in Lihu Lake, Taihu Basin, China

Wang

Liu

et al. 2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…The niche concept was defined by Hutchinson [ 2 ] as an n -dimensional hypervolume has facilitated numerous community structure studies within ecosystems, in addition to the development of mathematical techniques for quantifying niche dimensionality, spatiotemporal change, trophic contribution, and inter- and intra-specific trophic diversity [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Such studies have enabled quantitative assessments of not only changes in community characteristics (e.g., species abundance, richness and evenness) that depend on the presence or absence of competitors and predators, but also of biological interactions based on positions within food webs, enhancing our understanding of organisms’ functions within ecosystem food webs [ 6 , 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stable isotopes have been used as alternative tools for analyzing food sources and overcoming the limitations of existing methods. These isotopes can accurately evaluate trophic structure based on the fractionation effect exhibited by each isotope during food assimilation into the tissues of consumers in the upper trophic levels [ 7 , 8 ]. The carbon (C) stable isotope ratio (δ 13 C) provides insights into the food sources of a consumer, as the fixed value does not change significantly from photosynthesis through feeding, digestion, and assimilation, with a difference lower than 1‰ between prey and predator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, as standard ellipse area (SEA) can be derived by considering the sample size within a community (in this case, SEAc), communities with different sample sizes can be directly compared [ 4 ]. Such statistical methods have been applied to analyze the isotopic niches of various taxonomic groups both at the individual level, such as in benthic macroinvertebrates, amphibians, fish, and birds, and at the community level, such as in zooplankton [ 7 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trophic Ecology of Endangered Gold-Spotted Pond Frog in Ecological Wetland Park and Rice Paddy Habitats

Chang

Jin

et al. 2021

Animals

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The gold-spotted pond frog (Pelophylax chosenicus) is an endangered amphibian species in South Korea. In order to obtain ecological information regarding the gold-spotted pond frog’s habitat environment and biological interactions, we applied stable isotope analysis to quantify the ecological niche space (ENS) of frogs including black-spotted pond frogs (P. nigromaculatus) and bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) within the food web of two different habitats—an ecological wetland park and a rice paddy. The gold-spotted pond frog population exhibited a broader ENS in the ecological wetland park than in the rice paddy. According to the carbon stable isotope ratios, gold-spotted pond frogs mainly fed on insects, regardless of habitat type. However, the results comparing the range of both carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes showed that gold-spotted pond frogs living in the rice paddy showed limited feeding behavior, while those living in the ecological wetland park fed on various food sources located in more varied trophic positions. Although the ENS of the gold-spotted pond frog was generally less likely to be overlapped by that of other frog species, it was predicted to overlap with a high probability of 87.3% in the ecological wetland park. Nevertheless, gold-spotted pond frogs in the ecological wetland park were not significantly affected by the prey competition with competitive species by feeding on other prey for which other species’ preference was low. Since these results show that a habitats’ food diversity has an effect on securing the ENS of gold-spotted pond frogs and prey competition, we recommend that the establishment of a food environment that considers the feeding behavior of gold-spotted pond frogs is important for the sustainable preservation of gold-spotted pond frogs and their settlement in alternative habitats.

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“…The "competitive exclusion principle" proposed by Gause (1934) states that "two species with identical niches (and competing for a single resource) cannot coexist together indefinitely". The coexisting species should have at least one food source that differs when there are overlaps in diet to avoid competitve exclusion (Hutchinson 1957;Wang et al 2018). Therefore, stable isotope models can also assist in understanding the type of competitive effect that invasive populations can have on the native populations (Schmidt et al 2007).…”

Section: 1) Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding dynamics of invasive (Tarebia granifera) and native (Melanoides tuberculata) freshwater gastropods.

Naidoo

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Tarebia granifera has invaded several South African estuaries, outnumbering native gastropods such as Melanoides tuberculata. Comparative feeding dynamics can aid in estimating and understanding invasion impacts. This study aimed to explore the feeding dynamics of these gastropods with the use of two different approaches. Stable Isotope Analyses (SIAs) were used to investigate the dietary preferences and niche overlaps in the St Lucia Estuary, while Functional Response Experiments measured the relationship between the consumption rate of a food resource and its availability. These experiments were run both with and without the presence of heterospecific chemical cues (secondary metabolites secreted by either species) to determine whether chemical cues influence the functional responses of T. granifera and M. tuberculata. Mixed species experiments were also conducted to observe individual behaviour (active, inactive and feeding) over time and measure resource consumption when both species are placed together under high and low food availability. The SIA showed that both gastropods exhibited generalist diets, however, due to niche partitioning, there was no significant difference in their dietary niche overlap. In the FR experiments, both species exhibited Type II FRs and had similar feeding rates. However, in the presence of heterospecific chemical cues, M. tuberculata exhibited a higher feeding rate at high food availabilities, whereas T. granifera showed efficient feeding dynamics under limited food resources. In the mixed species experiments, T. granifera spent more time feeding under low food availability while M. tuberculata spent more time feeding under high food availability. This study showed that in certain conditions (e.g. high resource availability) the alien species did not always have a feeding advantage. A multiple method approach is recommended when assessing ecological impacts of invasive species. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr Nicola K.Carrasco and co-supervisor Dr Nelson A.F. Miranda, for giving me this opportunity. I would like to thank my supervisors for always having faith in me and for always providing me with invaluable guidance throughout my project. It was a great privilege to work and study under two proficient supervisors. I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor André Vosloo, for his valuable input towards my project.A special thank you to Caroline Fox from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife for logistical support and for providing us with the helpful information in the field. Dr Grant Hall of the Stable Isotope Laboratory at the Mammal Research Institute (University of Pretoria) is also acknowledged for processing and analysing the stable isotope samples.A sincere thank you to Jamila Janna for providing valuable data for this study. I would also like to thank my research colleagues, Merusha Govender, Merrisa Naidoo, Njabulo Mdluli, Natleen Govender and Mandy Jones, for their assistance and continuous support in the fi...

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Trophic Niche Width and Overlap of Three Benthic Living Fish Species in Poyang Lake: a Stable Isotope Approach

Cited by 14 publications

References 31 publications

Exploring the trophic niche characteristics of four carnivorous Cultrinae fish species in Lihu Lake, Taihu Basin, China

Exploring the trophic niche characteristics of four carnivorous Cultrinae fish species in Lihu Lake, Taihu Basin, China

Trophic Ecology of Endangered Gold-Spotted Pond Frog in Ecological Wetland Park and Rice Paddy Habitats

Feeding dynamics of invasive (Tarebia granifera) and native (Melanoides tuberculata) freshwater gastropods.

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