Abstract
Omnivores always show flexible foraging habits and actively shift their diets responding to the varying local conditions as well as different ontogenetic trajectories. Littoral fish commonly exhibiting omnivorous diets across pelagic and benthic food webs has the potential effect on trophic dynamics and food web stability. Here, we studied dietary strategy of lake anchovy, a non-migratory omnivorous fish, in two freshwater lakes with distinctly different trophic states to reveal its trophic niche shifts and population-and individual- level feeding habits plasticity using stable isotope analysis. We found lake anchovy exhibited diverse dietary strategies at both population and individual levels according to habitat changes. In eutrophic Chaohu Lake, lake anchovy showed generalized niche but greater individual diet variation and fed primarily on zooplankton. Conversely, lake anchovy exhibited relatively specialized niche and lower individual variation, foraging mainly on shrimps and fishes in mesotrophic Dongting Lake. Hence, habitat trophic status can affect the diet composition of lake anchovy indirectly through complex prey responding, which constrains food web coupling and influence energy flux and trophic dynamics.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Bearhop, S., Adams, C.E., Waldron, S., Fuller, R.A., and MacLeod, H., Determining trophic niche width: a novel approach using stable isotope analysis, J. Anim. Ecol., 2004, vol. 73, no. 5, pp. 1007–1012.
Bolnick, D.I., Yang, L.H., Fordyce, J.A., Davis, J.M., and Svanbäck, R., Measuring individual-level resource specialization, Ecology, 2002, vol. 83, no. 10, pp. 2936–2941.
Briones, J.C., Tsai, C.-H., Nakazawa, T., Sakai, Y., Papa, R.D.S., Hsieh, C.-H., and Okuda, N., Long-term changes in the diet of Gymnogobius isaza from Lake Biwa, Japan: effects of body size and environmental prey availability, PloS One, 2012, vol. 7, no. 12, p. e53167.
DeNiro, M.J. and Epstein, S., Influence of diet on the distribution of carbon isotopes in animals, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 1978, vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 495–506.
DeNiro, M.J. and Epstein, S., Influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 1981, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 341–351.
Development Core Team, A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing, Vienna: Found. Stat. Comput., 2014.
Diao, Z.S. and Wu, X.C., Dynamic of lake anchovy resource and suggestion of fishery utilization (in Chinese), in Research Report on the Enhancement of Fisheries Resources in Lake Chaohu, Chaohu: Fish. Manage. Comm. Lake Chaohu, 1982, vol. 1, pp. 62–73.
Diehl, S., Relative consumer sizes and the strengths of direct and indirect interactions in omnivorous feeding relationships, Oikos, 1993, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 151–157.
Eloranta, A.P., Knudsen, R., and Amundsen, P.-A., Niche segregation of coexisting Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) constrains food web coupling in subarctic lakes, Freshwater Biol., 2013, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 207–221.
Fagan, W.F., Omnivory as a stabilizing feature of natural communities, Am. Nat., 1997, vol. 150, no. 5, pp. 554–567.
Fox, A.D., Cao, L., Barter, M., Rees, E.C., Hearn, R.D., Cong, P.H., Wang, X., Zhang, Y., Dou, S.T., and Shao, X.F., The functional use of East Dongting Lake, China, by wintering geese, Wildfowl, 2008, vol. 58, pp. 3–19.
France, R.L., Differentiation between littoral and pelagic food webs in lakes using stable carbon isotopes, Limnol. Oceanogr., 1995, vol. 40, no. 7, pp. 1310–1313.
Gao, A. and Zhou, K., Geographical variations of external measurements and three subspecies of Neophocaena phocaenoides in Chinese waters, Acta Theriol. Sin., 1995, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 81–92.
Gu, B., Schelske, C., and Hoyer, M., Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen as indicators of diet and trophic structure of the fish community in a shallow hypereutrophic lake, J. Fish Biol., 1996, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 1233–1243.
Guo, L.G., Studies on fisheries ecology in a large euthrophic shallow lake, Lake Chaohu, PhD Thesis, China: Inst. Hydrobiol., Chin. Acad. Sci., 2005.
Huxel, G.R. and McCann, K., Food web stability: the influence of trophic flows across habitats, Am. Nat., 1998, vol. 152, no. 3, pp. 460–469.
Jackson, A.L., Inger, R., Parnell, A.C., and Bearhop, S., Comparing isotopic niche widths among and within communities: SIBER–Stable Isotope Bayesian Ellipses in R, J.Anim. Ecol., 2011, vol. 80, no. 3, pp. 595–602.
Jiang, Y., Chen, L., Li, L.Q., Zou, Z.R., and Dai, W.N., Time series analysis of Dongting lake water quality, Liaoning Chem. Ind., 2014a, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 288–291.
Jiang, Y.J., He, W., Liu, W.X., Qin, N., Ouyang, H.L., Wang, Q.M., Kong, X.Z., He, Q.S., Yang, C., and Yang, B., The seasonal and spatial variations of phytoplankton community and their correlation with environmental factors in a large eutrophic chinese lake (Lake Chaohu), Ecol. Indica, 2014b, vol. 40, pp. 58–67.
Layman, C.A., Arrington, D.A., Montaña, C.G., and Post, D.M., Can stable isotope ratios provide for community-wide measures of trophic structure? Ecology, 2007, vol. 88, no. 1, pp. 42–48.
Liu, Z., Diet of the zooplanktivorous icefish Neosalanx pseudotaihuensis Zhang, Hydrobiologia, 2001, vol. 459, no. 1, pp. 51–56.
MacArthur, R.H. and Pianka, E.R., On optimal use of a patchy environment, Am. Nat., 1966, vol. 100, no. 916, pp. 603–609.
Newsome, S.D., del Rio, C.M., Bearhop, S., and Phillips, D.L., A niche for isotopic ecology, Front. Ecol. Environ., 2007, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 429–436.
Newsome, S.D., Yeakel, J.D., Wheatley, P.V., and Tinker, M.T., Tools for quantifying isotopic niche space and dietary variation at the individual and population level, J. Mammal., 2012, vol. 93, no. 2, pp. 329–341.
Parnell, A., Inger, R., Bearhop, S., and Jackson, A.L., SIAR: stable isotope analysis in R, Comprehensive R archive network, 2008. http://cranr-projectorg/web/packages/siar/indexhtml
Parnell, A.C., Inger, R., Bearhop, S., and Jackson, A.L., Source partitioning using stable isotopes: coping with too much variation, PLoS One, 2010, vol. 5, no. 3, p. e9672.
Persson, L. and Greenberg, L.A., Juvenile competitive bottlenecks: the perch (Perca fluviatilis)–roach (Rutilus rutilus) interaction, Ecology, 1990, vol. 71, no.1, pp. 44–56.
Pimm, S. and Lawton, J., On feeding on more than one trophic level, Nature, 1978, vol. 275, no. 5680, pp. 542–544.
Polis, G.A., Myers, C.A., and Holt, R.D., The ecology and evolution of intraguild predation: potential competitors that eat each other, Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 1989, vol. 20, pp. 297–330.
Post, D.M., Using stable isotopes to estimate trophic position: models, methods, and assumptions, Ecology, 2002, vol. 83, no. 3, pp. 703–718.
Quevedo, M., Svanback, R., and Eklov, P., Intrapopulation niche partitioning in a generalist predator limits food web connectivity, Ecology, 2009, vol. 90, no. 8, pp. 2263–2274.
Richmond, C.E., Breitburg, D.L., and Rose, K.A., The role of environmental generalist species in ecosystem function, Ecol. Model., 2005, vol. 188, no. 2, pp. 279–295.
Schindler, D.E. and Scheuerell, M.D., Habitat coupling in lake ecosystems, Oikos, 2002, vol. 98, no. 2, pp. 177–189.
Stephens, D.W. and Krebs, J.R., Foraging Theory, Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1986.
Svanbäck, R. and Bolnick, D.I., Intraspecific competition affects the strength of individual specialization: an optimal diet theory method, Evol. Ecol. Res., 2005, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 993–1012.
Valen van, L., Morphological variation and width of ecological niche, Am. Nat., 1965, vol. 99, no. 908, pp. 377–390.
Vander Zanden, M.J. and Vadeboncoeur, Y., Fishes as integrators of benthic and pelagic food webs in lakes, Ecology, 2002, vol. 83, no. 8, pp. 2152–2161.
Wang, Y., Yu, X., and Xu, J., Decreased trophic position as a function of increasing body size of a benthic omnivorous fish from the largest freshwater lake in China, Environ. Biol. Fish., 2011, vol. 91, no.4, pp. 505–512.
Wanink, J.H. and Joordens, J.C.A., Dietary shifts in Brycinus sadleri (Pisces: Characidae) from southern Lake Victoria, Aquat. Ecosyst. Health, 2007, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 392–397.
Xu, J., Wen, Z.R., Gong, Z.J., Zhang, M., Xie, P., and Hansson, L.-A., Seasonal trophic niche shift and cascading effect of a generalist predator fish, PloS One, 2012, vol. 7, no. 12, p. e49691.
Xu, J., Xie, P., Zhang, M., and Yang, H., Variation in stable isotope signatures of seston and a zooplanktivorous fish in a eutrophic Chinese lake, Hydrobiologia, 2005, vol. 541, no. 1, pp. 215–220.
Xu, J., Zhang, M., and Xie, P., Size-related shifts in reliance on benthic and pelagic food webs by lake anchovy, Ecoscience, 2007, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 170–177.
Xu, J., Zhang, M., and Xie, P., Stable isotope changes in freshwater shrimps (Exopalaemon modestus and Macrobrachium nipponensis): trophic pattern implications, Hydrobiologia, 2008, vol. 605, no. 1, pp. 45–54.
Yang, L.B., Han, X.Y., Sun, P., Yan, W.J., and Li, Y.C., Canonical correspondence analysis of algae community and its environmental factors in the Lake Chaohu, China, J. Agro-Environ. Sci., 2011, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 952–958.
Yang, Q.C., Liu, E.S., Bao, C.H., Wu, C.J., Wang, S.R., Li, H.Y., and Song, X.M., Analysis of the component of the food for Neosalanx tangkahkeii taihuensis in Chaohu Lake, J. Anhui Agric. Sci., 2008, vol. 36, no. 36, pp. 15922–15924.
Yang, G.J., Qin, B.Q., Tang, X.M., Gong, Z.J., Zhong, C.N., Zou, H., and Wang, X.D., Contrasting zooplankton communities of two bays of the large, shallow, eutrophic Lake Taihu, China: their relationship to environmental factors, J. Great Lakes Res., 2012, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 299–308.
Zhang, H., Wu, G.G., Zhang, H., Xie, P., Xu, J., and Zhou, Q., Role of body size and temporal hydrology in the dietary shifts of shortjaw tapertail anchovy Coilia brachygnathus (Actinopterygii, Engraulidae) in a large floodplain lake, Hydrobiologia, 2013, vol. 703, no. 1, pp. 247–256.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The article is published in the original.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sha, Y.C., Su, G.H., Zhang, P.Y. et al. Diverse dietary strategy of lake anchovy Coilia ectenes taihuensis in lakes with different trophic status. J. Ichthyol. 55, 866–873 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945215060193
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0032945215060193