Diets and trophic guilds of small fishes from coastal marine habitats in western Taiwan

J. P. Egan, U. S. Chew, C. H. Kuo, V. Villarroel-Diaz, P. J. Hundt, N. G. Iwinski, M. P. Hammer, A. M. Simons

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The diets and trophic guilds of small fishes were examined along marine sandy beaches and in estuaries at depths <1·5 m in western Taiwan, Republic of China. Copepods were the most frequently identified item in fish guts, indicating they are key prey for the fish assemblages studied. Piscivore, crustacivore, detritivore, omnivore, zooplanktivore and terrestrial invertivore trophic guilds were identified. The zooplanktivore guild contained the most fish species. Maximum prey size consumption was positively correlated with standard length (LS) in seven species and at the assemblage level and negatively correlated with LS in a single detritivorous species. The diet data and trophic guild scheme produced by this study contribute to an understanding of coastal marine food webs and can inform ecosystem-based fisheries management.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)331-345
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Fish Biology
Volume91
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2017

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was funded in part by the Lerner-Gray Memorial Fund for Marine Research (American Museum of Natural History), Dayton Research Fund (JFBM, University of Minnesota), the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Program from the National Science Council of Taiwan and the National Science Foundation, U.S.A. (1316912). During the preparation of this manuscript J.P.E. received financial support from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (00039202).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles

Keywords

  • ecological niche
  • food habit
  • food web
  • prey size
  • subtropical
  • tropical

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article

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