Abstract
The yellowfin notothen Patagonotothen guntheri is an important fish species in the Marine Protected Area Namuncurá-Burdwood Bank (MPAN-BB) due to its high abundance and significant ecological role. Thus, diet composition and feeding habits were analyzed. To fulfill this purpose, percentage frequency of occurrence, prey-specific abundance, and prey-specific index of relative importance (%PSIRI) were calculated. Generalized linear models were built for the defined prey categories to assess changes in feeding associated with total length, sex, depth, and zone of capture. Two hundred fifty-two specimens were sampled (69–256 mm total length), of which 186 contained food (73.41%). According to PSIRI, ophiuroids (23.28%), unidentified polychaetes (17.92%), and Munida gregaria (12.73%) were the main prey items. However, yellowfin notothen showed variations in diet composition according to their length and the depth of capture. The consumption of decapods and other invertebrates increased with depth, while the ingestion of ophiuroids decreased. Also, the number of polychaetes was higher in the stomach content of larger specimens. The present work provides the first description and analysis of P. guntheri trophic ecology in the MPAN-BB, concluding that it is a species with a generalist diet, which feeds on a great diversity of both benthic and pelagic organisms depending on availability.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the scientific staff for helping during sampling, as well as to Drs. Roccatagliata, Schejter, Riccialdelli, Diez and Alvarez Colombo for their commitment to coordinating the work on board. The authors would like to thank to Drs. Rodolfo Elias, Claudia Bremec and Gabriel Genzano for the help on the identification or confirmation of different taxa from stomach contents. We are very grateful with Dr. Santiago Barbini and Dr. Matias Delpiani for the suggestions and time invested during the development of this study. A particular thanks to Dr. Martin Ruiz Moreno who revised the grammar style. We also thank the reviewers (Mathias Hüne, Paul Brickle and Inigo Everson) for their valuable comments that greatly improve the manuscript. This is contribution N°58 of the Marine Protected Area Namuncurá-Burdwood Bank (Law 26875).
Funding
This study was supported by Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (Grant No. PICT 2018-0790) and Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Grant No. EXA 970/20). Cruise operating costs were afforded by funds of the creation law of MPA Namuncurá – Burdwood Bank (Law 26.875).
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J.M.D.A. proposed and obtained funding for the project. G.D. and M.D.A. designed the study, collected and identified the samples. M.C.A. and L.F. carried out stomach analyses. M.C.A. and G.D. analyzed data. M.C.A. wrote the manuscript. All authors commented, read and approved the manuscript.
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Covatti Ale, M., Fischer, L., Deli Antoni, M. et al. Trophic ecology of the yellowfin notothen, Patagonotothen guntheri (Norman, 1937) at the Marine Protected Area Namuncurá-Burdwood Bank, Argentina. Polar Biol 45, 549–558 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-022-03011-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-022-03011-w