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Stomach content analysis in cephalopods: past research, current challenges, and future directions

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Abstract

Dietary descriptions based on stomach content are pervasive regardless of the biases concerning its methodology, statistics and descriptors. We here review different biases on the stomach content analysis, sample size, and indices used for cephalopods. These mollusks are key components in marine food webs and most are characterized as active predators, thus, knowledge of their feeding ecology based on stomach content analysis is of paramount importance. We suggest alternatives to describe dietary data using unbiased estimators. These are based on re-sampling, using published data of cephalopod stomach content, and conducting estimations using intervals. In our review, we detected that several studies found a high proportion of empty stomachs and highly digested preys, which influences the sample size with contents. In turn, sample size is positively associated with the number of prey species in the stomach contents. Moreover, many studies confuse the terms opportunistic vs. generalist predator and selective vs. specialist predator. Therefore, to improve the understanding of these concepts, we calculated niche-width indices and compared them with prey richness and evenness at individual and population levels. We also show that although most cephalopods exhibit generalized diet and wide trophic niche, their hunting strategy is selective and specialized at individual level. It is worth noting that the diet of over 90% of cephalopod species is not yet known, and thus, the number of trophic studies should increase to fill this gap of knowledge. We provide a series of recommendations to improve and correctly conduct and interpret the studies of stomach content for cephalopods.

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Acknowledgements

Rui Rosa was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), through the strategic project granted to MARE (UID/MAR/04292/2013). Tatiana Leite was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPE) through the project research (Ciências do Mar II-23038.004807/2014-01) for studies with cephalopod in Brazil. Mariana Díaz-Santana-Iturrios wishes to thank 2do año de continuidad de estancias posdoctorales en el extranjero promoted by CONACYT.

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Rui Rosa, MARE (UID/MAR/04292/2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello, Avenida República 440, Santiago, Chile

    Christian M. Ibáñez & Mariana Díaz-Santana-Iturrios

  2. Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Católica de La Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Rodrigo Riera

  3. Grupo en Biodiversidad y Conservación, IU-ECOAQUA, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, 35017, Las Palmas, Spain

    Rodrigo Riera

  4. Departamento de Ecologia E Zoologia, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil

    Tatiana Leite

  5. MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Laboratório Marítimo da Guia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa. Avenida Nossa Senhora do Cabo 939, 2750-374, Cascais, Portugal

    Rui Rosa

  6. Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Las Palmeras 3425, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile

    M. Cecilia Pardo-Gandarillas

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Ibáñez, C.M., Riera, R., Leite, T. et al. Stomach content analysis in cephalopods: past research, current challenges, and future directions. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 31, 505–522 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-021-09653-z

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