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Evidence of prey partition for the three sympatric Chromis species (Perciformes: Pomacentridae) based on ecomorphological analyses

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Abstract

Ecomorphological adaptations represent the response of organisms to environmental factors during evolution. The jaw bones of three sympatric species of Chromis (Chromis notata, Chromis fumea and Chromis albicauda) were assessed using a geometric morphometric analysis, and were compared with prey composition as determined by stomach content analyses. According to a canonical variate analysis based on 48 landmarks, the three species show distinct differences in the premaxilla, dentary, angular, and retroarticular. They feed mainly on planktonic copepods, which represent ca. 90 % of their total diets; however, their diets slightly but significantly differ in the frequencies of occurrence of amphipods, euphausiids, mysids, decapods, and polychaetes. A comprehensive review indicates that the thick mandible of C. notata is an adaptive trait which confers the capability to feed on relatively harder prey items than does C. fumea, in which the mandible is less robust. However, the protrusive ability of the upper jaw in C. fumea is enhanced relative to that in C. notata and C. albicauda, because of a long ascending process in C. fumea. The long thin lower jaw of C. fumea is regarded as a morpho-functional adaption for effectively catching pelagic prey, such as planktonic copepod, in contrast to chewing and biting of prey. Our results firstly suggest evidence of prey partition for the sympatric three Chromis species (C. notata, C. fumea and C. albicauda) based on comparison between jaw bone structure and prey compostion, may help to understand evolutionary histories among species.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for valuable advice and suggestions for improvement of the paper. We also thank to B. Frederich for helpful comments for geometric morphometrics. This research was supported by the Marine Fish Resources Bank of Korea (MFRBK). The surveys and fish collections carried out in this study comply with the current laws in Korea.

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  1. Department of Marine Biology, Pukyong National University, 599-1 Daeyeon 3-Dong, Nam-Gu, Busan, 608-737, Korea

    Young Sun Song & Jin-Koo Kim

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  1. Young Sun Song
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  2. Jin-Koo Kim
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Correspondence to Jin-Koo Kim.

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Song, Y.S., Kim, JK. Evidence of prey partition for the three sympatric Chromis species (Perciformes: Pomacentridae) based on ecomorphological analyses. Environ Biol Fish 98, 1265–1275 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-014-0357-1

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