Journal
JOURNAL OF OCEAN UNIVERSITY OF CHINA
Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages 278-282Publisher
OCEAN UNIV CHINA
DOI: 10.1007/s11802-014-2071-1
Keywords
trophic level; stable isotope analysis; mid-east Pacific; shark
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41206124, 41106118]
- Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [201 23104120001]
- 'Chen Guang' Project of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission [D-8004-10-0206]
- Shanghai Education Development Foundation [B-8102-10-0084]
- Scientific Observing and Experimental Station of Oceanic Fishery Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, China
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As apex predators, sharks are of ecological and conservation importance in marine ecosystems. In this study, trophic positions of sharks were estimated using stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen for five representative species caught by the Chinese longline fleet in the mid-east Pacific, i.e., the blue shark (Prionace glauca), the bigeye thresher shark (Alopias superciliosus), the silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis), the scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini), and the oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus). Of these species, oceanic whitetip shark has the lowest trophic level and mean delta N-15 value (3.9 and 14.93aEuro degrees +/- 0.84aEuro degrees), whereas bigeye thresher shark has the highest level/values (4.5 and 17.02aEuro degrees +/- 1.21aEuro degrees, respectively). The bigeye thresher shark has significantly higher delta N-15 value than other shark species, indicating its higher trophic position. The blue shark and oceanic whitetip shark has significantly higher delta C-13 values than bigeye thresher shark, silky shark and scalloped hammerhead, possibly due to different diets and/or living habitats. The stable isotope data and stomach content data are highly consistent, suggesting that stable isotope analysis supplements traditional feeding ecology study of sharks, and thus contributes to understanding their trophic linkage.
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