Diet and feeding strategy of Northeast Atlantic mackerel (Scombrus scomber) in Icelandic waters

Kvaavik, Cecilia; Óskarsson, Guðmundur J.; Daníelsdóttir, Anna Kristín; Marteinsdóttir, Guðrún

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0225552

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Mackerel showed a generalist feeding strategy with the largest values for species richness and Shannon diversity in spring, and diverse prey sizes consumed in winter, in agreement with several previous studies (e.g. Debes et al 2012, Utne et al 2012, Bachiller et al 2016, Óskarsson et al 2016, Kvaavik et al 2019. This study has shown the importance of appendicularians in the diet of mackerel in the Celtic Seas ecoregion in spring and winter, which as such may be non-coincidental consumption, as reported in the Norwegian Sea (Prokopchuk & Sentyabov 2006, Langøy et al 2012, Bachiller et al 2016.…”

Section: Diet Composition and Overlap Of Juveniles And Adults (Non-la...supporting

confidence: 92%

Seasonality of diet overlap among small pelagic fish in the waters southwest of the UK

Patel

Roy

Capuzzo

et al. 2023

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Small pelagic fish (SPF) play an important ecological role by facilitating energy transfer in marine ecosystems, from lower to higher trophic levels. The Celtic Seas ecoregion is home to several economically important SPF that spend some or all their life in these waters. In recent decades, major changes in the relative abundances of the 6 main SPF in the region (anchovy, herring, horse mackerel, mackerel, sardine, and sprat) have been observed. Changes in the region may impact SPF, and previous studies in neighbouring seas have highlighted possible diet overlap of these species; therefore, it is important to understand the changes in diet overlap and trophic relationships, particularly across different seasons. Consequently, we investigated the seasonal diet composition of these 6 SPF in the Celtic Seas ecoregion, identified diet overlap, and determined species selectivity towards prey size. Combining historical and new observations on fish-stomach contents, diet-overlap indices were computed to quantify potential seasonal intra- and inter-specific overlap. Diet overlaps among species changed between seasons; in particular, sprat and anchovy changed significantly between spring and autumn, and mackerel between spring, summer, and winter. SPF species primarily consumed calanoid copepods, with herring and horse mackerel having more selective diets compared to mackerel, anchovy, and sardine. All species fed at similar trophic levels between seasons. To our knowledge, this study is the first to show seasonal variability in diet overlap among the 6 SPF in the Celtic Seas ecoregion. These results can improve the understanding of feeding dynamics for SPF in ecosystem model outputs.

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Section: Diet Composition and Overlap Of Juveniles And Adults (Non-la...supporting

confidence: 92%

Seasonality of diet overlap among small pelagic fish in the waters southwest of the UK

Patel

Roy

Capuzzo

et al. 2023

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…The size range sampled (with full stomachs) in the present study (> 20cm) possibly prevented us to identify macrozooplankton as an essential part of hake diet, as this species shows an ontogenic change in diet (Velasco and Olaso, 1998), with only juveniles smaller than 19 cm being planktivores. Salps and anchovies were the main prey for Atlantic mackerel and Atlantic chub mackerel, in contrast to that observed in other studies where decapods, krill, copepods or blue whiting were the most important food source (Cabral and Murta, 2002;Olaso et al, 2005;Kvaavik et al, 2019). Olaso et al (2005) however reported salps as important source of food for Atlantic mackerel in late summer-autumn in the BoB.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 69%

Influence of seasonal variability on the trophic structure of pelagic communities

Iglesias,

Louzao,

Bachiller

et al. 2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Seasonal variations in hydrodynamic conditions play a critical role in prey availability at the base of the food web and thus have implications for trophic interactions at higher trophic levels. Here we use the combination of stomach content analysis (SCA) and stable isotope analysis (SIA) to investigate predator-prey interactions and trophic structure of the pelagic fish community of the Bay of Biscay (BoB) in spring and late summer of 2020 and 2021. We found that trophic guilds were more influenced by intra-specific affinities rather than seasonal variability. Main prey for the pelagic fish comprised a set of species belonging to different trophic positions (TPs), from low TP class Thaliacea (salps) to mid TP Engraulis encrasicolus. Vertically migrating meso- and macrozooplankton (mainly copepods and krill) also played an important role as food source for the pelagic fish community showing high trophic overlap among most of species. No differences were detected between the trophic structure in spring and late summer with fish, squids and chaetognaths at the top TPs, whereas krill, meso-zooplankton and salps had the lowest values. However, the TPs estimated using both SCA and SIA approaches were consistently lower in spring, likely due to higher densities and, thus, low TP prey availability in spring. When analyzing ontogenic changes in TPs with predator’s size, significant and positive relationships were found when TP was estimated using SIA but not when using SCA. Overall, our results reveal new insights into the seasonal trophic dynamics of the pelagic fish community of the BoB.

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“…These are useful indices to rank prey importance since they take into account both numerical and weight-based importance to the diet. Some authors favor GII [58][59][60], others favor IRI [61][62][63] and some %PSIRI [64,65], while some doubt the merits of all such combined indices (see [44] and references therein). Here, each method was used to examine only the ranking of prey types, because the three combined index values are not directly comparable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding ecology of broadbill swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in the California current

Preti

Stohs

DiNardo³

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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The feeding ecology of broadbill swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in the California Current was described based on analysis of stomach contents collected by fishery observers aboard commercial drift gillnet boats from 2007 to 2014. Prey were identified to the lowest taxonomic level and diet composition was analyzed using univariate and multivariate methods. Of 299 swordfish sampled (74 to 245 cm eye-to-fork length), 292 non-empty stomachs contained remains from 60 prey taxa. Genetic analyses were used to identify prey that could not be identified visually. Diet consisted mainly of cephalopods but also included epipelagic and mesopelagic teleosts. Jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas) and Gonatopsis borealis were the most important prey based on the geometric index of importance. Swordfish diet varied with body size, location and year. Jumbo squid, Gonatus spp. and Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) were more important for larger swordfish, reflecting the ability of larger specimens to catch large prey. Jumbo squid, Gonatus spp. and market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) were more important in inshore waters, while G. borealis and Pacific hake predominated offshore. Jumbo squid was more important in 2007–2010 than in 2011–2014, with Pacific hake being the most important prey item in the latter period. Diet variation by area and year probably reflects differences in swordfish preference, prey availability, prey distribution, and prey abundance. The range expansion of jumbo squid that occurred during the first decade of this century may particularly explain their prominence in swordfish diet during 2007–2010. Some factors (swordfish size, area, time period, sea surface temperature) that may influence dietary variation in swordfish were identified. Standardizing methods could make future studies more comparable for conservation monitoring purposes.

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Diet and feeding strategy of Northeast Atlantic mackerel (Scombrus scomber) in Icelandic waters

Cited by 13 publications

References 69 publications

Seasonality of diet overlap among small pelagic fish in the waters southwest of the UK

Seasonality of diet overlap among small pelagic fish in the waters southwest of the UK

Influence of seasonal variability on the trophic structure of pelagic communities

Feeding ecology of broadbill swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in the California current

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