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Food resource partitioning in a Mediterranean demersal fish assemblage: the effect of body size and niche width

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Abstract

We investigated the effects of body size, feeding strategy and depth distribution on the trophic resource partitioning among the 26 dominant fish consumers in a fish assemblage on the central Mediterranean shelf-break. The fish assemblage was structured in two major trophic guilds: epibenthic and zooplanktonic feeders, according to the position of each predator along the benthos–plankton gradient. Within each main guild, the species were segregated along a prey-size or fish-size gradient into five further guilds. Fish size and prey size were strongly correlated, indicating that the prey-size niche can be well explained by predator size. Fish consumers showed a significant negative correlation between the similarity in prey type and the similarity in depth distribution; most species with similar trophic preferences segregated along the depth dimension. The only predators overlapping in both food and depth preferences were those with a more specialist trophic behavior. These results suggest that fish body size and depth preferences are the two main niche dimensions, explaining a large part of the coexistence between the Mediterranean shelf-break fish consumers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal and Human Biology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, V.le dell’Università, 32, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Francesco Colloca, Paolo Carpentieri, Elena Balestri & Giandomenico Ardizzone

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  1. Francesco Colloca
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  2. Paolo Carpentieri
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  3. Elena Balestri
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  4. Giandomenico Ardizzone
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Correspondence to Francesco Colloca.

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Communicated by X. Irigoien.

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Colloca, F., Carpentieri, P., Balestri, E. et al. Food resource partitioning in a Mediterranean demersal fish assemblage: the effect of body size and niche width. Mar Biol 157, 565–574 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-009-1342-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-009-1342-7

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