Journal
ICES JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE
Volume 77, Issue 5, Pages 1927-1940Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsaa065
Keywords
migration ecology; partial migration; Patagonian Fjords; Southern hake; stable isotope; trophic ecology
Categories
Funding
- National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research [FONDECYT 1131143]
- Universidad de Los Lagos New Researchers Fund [FNI 01-16]
- Nucleo Milenio INVASAL - Chile's government programme, Iniciativa Cientifica Milenio from the Ministerio de Economia, Fomento y Turismo
- University of Exeter, UK (MINEDUC-UA project) [ANT 1855]
- CONICYT Becas-Chile [72190288]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Partial migration, where migrant and resident organisms coexist within the same population, has been found in many fishes. Although it seems obvious that different life cycles exploit habitats and food webs differently, few assessments about the trophic consequences of partial migration are available. To unveil part of this complexity, we combined otolith chemistry with stable isotope analyses data for hind-casting Merluccius australis habitat use and diet composition at age. By providing detailed information about lifetime variability in diet, trophic position, and prey demand of four M. australis life-cycle types, we show that these groups feed differentially in estuarine and oceanic habitats throughout their ontogeny. Although trophic positions were similar between habitats for juvenile and subadults, substantial differences between life-cycle types were found regarding lifetime diet and trophic demand. Thus, the more abundant and heavily exploited oceanic stock of M. australis was heavily dependent of estuarine habitats within the Patagonian Fjords System, where it consumes large biomasses of Macruronus magellanicus, Pasiphaea, Sprattus fuegensis, and Euphausiidae at earlier stages. We show ignoring trophic consequences of partial migration and life-cycle diversity may produce highly biased results, both in terms of prey and habitat use, which appears critical for multispecies and ecosystem management approaches.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available