Journal
MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES
Volume 563, Issue -, Pages 197-210Publisher
INTER-RESEARCH
DOI: 10.3354/meps11971
Keywords
Trophic position; Resource use; Niche partitioning; Stable isotopes; Competition; Fisheries; Foraging
Categories
Funding
- Australian Government's National Environmental Research Program (Tropical Ecosystems Hub Project 6.1)
- Australian Research Council [FT100101004]
- James Cook University College of Marine and Environmental Sciences
- James Cook University Graduate Research School
- Australian Coral Reef Society (ACRS) Award
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) PGS D scholarship
- Australian Research Council [FT100101004] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
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Prey selection can influence interactions among species, the composition and abundance of prey, and ultimately the movement of energy within the ecosystem. Different species of the exploited coral trout Plectropomus spp. often co-occur in reef environments, but their foraging behaviour and ecological niches are largely unknown. To explore niche overlap and resource use of sympatric adult coral trout, stable isotopes (delta C-13 and delta N-15) were quantified for 3 tissues (muscle, red blood cells, and plasma) collected between August 2013 and February 2014 from P. leopardus (n = 117) and P. laevis (n = 36) at 4 reefs in eastern Australia. Bayesian standard ellipses were used to show that prey selection of P. leopardus varied considerably from P. laevis, particularly from P. laevis in the blue-spot colour phase. Size of adult individuals had little influence on d13C and d15N values for P. leopardus and both footballer and blue-spot colour phases of P. laevis. Spatiotemporal comparisons of P. leopardus trophic positions, made by adjusting baseline algae and planktonic d15N at each reef and sampling period, demonstrated that trophic positions varied in time and space, and warrants further investigation. This study highlights that sympatric species of coral trout have distinct ecological roles and will likely react differently to environmental disturbances and/or changes in habitat or prey composition.
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