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Comparison of fish prey contribution in the diet of European hake by visual assessment of stomach contents and DNA metabarcoding

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Abstract

Diet studies are critical for ecosystem-level understanding of fish populations and a move toward ecosystem-based management of marine resources. European hake, Merluccius merluccius, a demersal mesopredator species, is one of the most important commercial fish in the Mediterranean, and as a predatory species it controls the food web. Here, we characterize the diet of M. merluccius with two different analytical methods, visual assessment of stomach contents and DNA metabarcoding. Seasonal and size-based differences in fish prey composition were investigated. Both methods produced complementary results with regard to fish prey contribution of European hake diet. The visual assessment approach showed significant differences between adult and juvenile hakes, while the metabarcoding approach indicated high seasonality in fish prey contribution and richness in its diet. An increase in fish prey diversity was found for both adult and juvenile hakes during the summer. Trachurus sp. was detected as the dominant fish prey in both methods. A broader range of fish prey species was detected by metabarcoding due to its ability to identify highly digested items from the stomach. Combining visual assessment with a novel metabarcoding approach has the potential to improve our understanding of trophic ecology, which can be useful for ecosystem-based management.

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Data availability

The NCBI BioProject database was used to store all of the DNA metabarcoding reads of prey species collected from the stomach contents, with the BioProject ID PRJNA807866.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dalida Bedikoğlu, Özkan Çamurcu, Fuat Dursun, Engin Erol, and the crew of Şükriye Ana 2 for their great help during research.

Funding

This study was funded by Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of Istanbul University, Turkey [Project number: FBA-2018–30845 and MBA-2021-37457].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Sciences and Management, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Türkiye

    Güzin Gül & Nazli Demirel

  2. Evolutionary Genetics Laboratory (eGL), Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye

    Emre Keskin

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  1. Güzin Gül
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  2. Emre Keskin
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  3. Nazli Demirel
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GG, EK, and ND: data curation, visualization, formal analysis, investigation, writing—original draft preparation, and writing—reviewing and editing. ND: supervision, funding acquisition, and conceptualization.

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Correspondence to Güzin Gül.

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Fish samples in this study were collected through commercial shrimp fisheries in the Sea of Marmara. All fishes were retained and used as per international guidelines for the care and use of animals.

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Gül, G., Keskin, E. & Demirel, N. Comparison of fish prey contribution in the diet of European hake by visual assessment of stomach contents and DNA metabarcoding. Environ Biol Fish 106, 613–625 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-023-01398-x

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