Tropical Rainforest Research — Current Issues pp 307-314 | Cite as
Resource use in a freshwater fish community of a tropical rainforest stream in northern Borneo
Abstract
Partitioning of key environmental resources (food, space and time) was studied in a freshwater fish community in the Belalong River, Brunei Darussalam, northern Borneo. Of a total of twenty-five species recorded, eight were confined to the lentic (slow-flowing) zone and seven to the lotic (fast-flowing) zone of the stream. An additional ten species were found in both these zones. In the lentic zone, fish species partitioned the habitat vertically into surface, pelagic, demersal, benthic and substratum niche types. In the lotic zone this stratification was not observed as the vertical component was compressed. Here, the abundance of all but two species of fish was low. Ecological indices (prey diversity, prey dominance, niche breadth and niche overlap) were used to analyse the data on food items ingested by each species. Although there was some overlap in food niche, the fish species were ecologically separated by differences in morphological features related to foraging tactics, feeding behaviour and space utilisation. Species that were close trophically either occupied different micro-habitats or foraged at different times. Results indicate that differences in the utilisation of space, time and food play an important role in the co-existence of species in the freshwater communities.
Key Words
fish lentic lotic resource partitioning space food time Brunei DarussalamPreview
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