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Dietary and niche analyses of four sympatric batoid species of the subtropical South Atlantic Ocean

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A Correction to this article was published on 16 April 2024

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Abstract

We aimed to characterize the trophic ecology and test the hypothesis of niche overlap between four sympatric batoid species of the subtropical South Atlantic. Data were collected between 2017 and 2022 from two artisanal fishery communities in southern Brazil. Batoid’s stomach contents were identified, separated into categories, and weighed. We calculated the Levins, Pianka’s, and Prey-specific index of relative dietary importance (PSIRI) and performed a similarity test using PERMANOVA and the similarity percentage (SIMPER) for niche analysis. We analyzed 229 stomachs of four batoid species, 187 containing foods. All species showed a narrow food niche. The most important diet items for each species were Leptochaela serratorbita and Onuphidae for Dasyatis hypostigma; Nematoda for Pseudobatos horkelii; L. serratorbita, Sicyonia dorsalis and Portunidae for Rioraja agassizii and Achelous spinicarpus and fish for Sympterygia bonapartii. The analyses showed dissimilarity among the species’ diets without significant niche overlap. Our results detected the absence of significant niche overlap among batoid species, suggesting other types of niche partitioning and spatiotemporal habitat variation. This information could be considered for local management plans.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available in the Dryad repository, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b5mkkwhj0.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Fernando Führ, Bianca Bennemann, and Mayara Hayata for the help in data sampling and Kalina Brauko and Gisela Ribeiro for helping us with sampling identification. Also, we want to thank the master’s reviewers, Paulo Simões Lopes and Getúlio Rincon Filho, and this paper's reviewers; all the suggestions were crucial to improving the final version. This study was part of a master’s thesis at the Graduate Program in Ecology at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), supported by a grant from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina (FAPESC).

Funding

The elasmobranch collection in Santa Catarina, Brazil, was authorized (number of authorization: 58298) for activities with scientific purposes by Sistema de Autorização e Informação em Biodiversidade – SISBIO / Instituto de Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade—ICMBIO, from Brazil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Biologia de Teleósteos e Elasmobrânquios (LABITEL), Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia - ECZ, Centro de Ciências Biológicas - CCB, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Roberto Sampaio Gonzaga, s/n, Trindade, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

    Liliam de Lima Lemos & Renato Hajenius Aché de Freitas

  2. Centro de Estudos do Mar, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Avenida Beira Mar S/N, Pontal do Sul, Pontal do Paraná, Paraná, Brazil

    Hugo Bornatowski

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  1. Liliam de Lima Lemos
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  2. Hugo Bornatowski
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  3. Renato Hajenius Aché de Freitas
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study's conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Liliam de Lima Lemos and Renato H. A. de Freitas. Liliam de Lima Lemos wrote the first draft of the manuscript and all authors commented on previous versions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Liliam de Lima Lemos.

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Competing interests

This work was supported by a master grant from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina (FAPESC), CP 05/2019.

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The original version of this article was revised: the first and last authors' family names were incorrectly abbreviated. The author listing should read as follows: L. L. Lima, H. Bornatowski, R. H. A. Freitas.

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Lemos, L.L., Bornatowski, H. & Freitas, R.H.A. Dietary and niche analyses of four sympatric batoid species of the subtropical South Atlantic Ocean. Hydrobiologia (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-024-05494-6

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