Behavioral mechanisms of trophic differentiation in benthivorous fish

Abstract

The base of the behavioral mechanism responsible for trophic differentiation in fish is determined: during feeding, specialized benthivores use space more selectively, while in nonspecialized fish, accidental components play an important role in the foraging behavior that determines the difference in its efficiency in the compared groups of fish species. Consequently, the specialized fish are able to optimize their behavior at a lower stability of the food distribution. The mechanism of density regulation based upon the polymorphism of social behavior serves as the base for the intraspecific trophic differentiation in fish. We show that species specific and intraspecific differences in the ability to risk build the base of trophic differentiation under pres sure of a predator.