Fish as ecological tools to complement biodiversity inventories of benthic macroinvertebrates

Maroneze, Daniel Marchetti; Tupinambás, Taynan H.; Alves, Carlos Bernardo Mascarenhas; Vieira, Fábio; Callisto, Marcos

doi:10.1007/s10750-011-0747-8

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Studies investigating the diet and feeding ecology of fishes are conducted primarily through stomach contents analysis (Pompeu & Godinho, 2003;Maroneze et al, 2011;Gandini et al, 2012). New approaches, however, such as the use of stable isotopes, allow for the quantification of the carbon sources effectively entering into a system (Forsberg et al, 1993;Benedito-Cecílio et al, 2000;Ferreira et al, 2012), in addition to determining the relative assimilation of some resources that are poorly quantified in the analysis of stomach contents, as is the case for detritus (Keough et al, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isotopic variation in five species of stream fishes under the influence of different land uses

Carvalho

Castro

Callisto

et al. 2015

Journal of Fish Biology

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The aim of this study was to test if changes in land use alter the isotopic signature of fish species, promoting changes in the trophic position and food resource partitioning between these consumers. Three different systems were investigated: pasture streams (n = 3), streams in sugar cane plantations (n = 3) and reference streams (n = 3). Fish species Aspidoras fuscoguttatus, Astyanax altiparanae, Characidium zebra, Hisonotus piracanjuba and Knodus moenkhausii were selected, and their nitrogen and carbon isotopic compositions were estimated to assess changes in the trophic level and partitioning of food items consumed. The composition of δ(13) C (‰) only differed among the land use categories for A. altiparanae, H. piracanjuba and K. moenkhausii. Resource partitioning was different for all species, with changes in the sources or proportions they consumed in each land use category, but only A. altiparanae introduced new food sources in large quantity in altered land uses. It is important to note, however, that the results from the resource partitioning analysis are limited due to large overlapping of isotopic signatures between the analysed food resources. All fish species exhibited variation in δ(15) N (‰), with the highest values found in streams under sugar cane or pasture influence. Despite the variation in nitrogen isotopic values, only C. zebra and H. piracanjuba displayed changes in trophic level. Therefore, it is believed that the increase in the δ(15) N (‰) value of the individuals collected in streams under the influence of sugar cane or pasture was due to the greater influence of livestock dung and chemical and organic fertilizers. The results also highlight the importance of studying consumer species along with all forms of resources available at each location separately, because the signatures of these resources also vary within different land uses.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isotopic variation in five species of stream fishes under the influence of different land uses

Carvalho

Castro

Callisto

et al. 2015

Journal of Fish Biology

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“…Dominance of chironomids is common in stomachs of E. virescens (Castro and Cassati, 1997;Tupinambás et al, 2007;Brandão-Gonçalves et al, 2009), I. labrosus (Fagundes et al, 2008;Maroneze et al, 2011b;Masdeu et al, 2011), and L. amblyrhynchus (Callisto et al, 2002;Mendonça et al, 2004;Maroneze et al, 2011b). The three fish species studied have high foraging capacities because of their morphological and physiological adaptations (Gerking, 1994;Fugi et al, 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish stomach contents in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage assessments

et al. 2015

Braz. J. Biol.

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The choice of sampling gears to assess benthic macroinvertebrate communities depends on environmental characteristics, study objectives, and cost effectiveness. Because of the high foraging capacity and diverse habitats and behaviors of benthophagous fishes, their stomach contents may offer a useful sampling tool in studies of benthic macroinvertebrates, especially in large, deep, fast rivers that are difficult to sample with traditional sediment sampling gear. Our objective was to compare the benthic macroinvertebrate communities sampled from sediments with those sampled from fish stomachs. We collected benthic macroinvertebrates and fish from three different habitat types (backwater, beach, riffle) in the wet season, drying season, and dry season along a single reach of the Grande River (Paraná River Basin, southeast Brazil). We sampled sediments through use of a Petersen dredge (total of 216 grabs) and used gill nets to sample fish (total of 36 samples). We analyzed the stomach contents of three commonly occurring benthophagous fish species (Eigenmannia virescens, Iheringichthys labrosus, Leporinus amblyrhynchus). Chironomids dominated in both sampling methods. Macroinvertebrate taxonomic composition and abundances from fish stomachs differed from those from sediment samples, but less so from riffles than from backwater and beach habitats. Macroinvertebrate taxa from E. virescens stomachs were more strongly correlated with sediment samples from all three habitats than were those from the other two species. The species accumulation curves and higher mean dispersion values, compared with with sediment samples suggest that E. virescens is more efficient than sediment samples and the other fish studied at collecting benthic taxa. We conclude that by analyzing the stomach contents of benthophagous fishes it is possible to assess important characteristics of benthic communities (dispersion, taxonomic composition and diversity). This is especially true for studies that only sample fish assemblages to evaluate aquatic ecosystem impacts. Therefore, this approach can be useful to amplify assessments of human impacts, and to incorporate additional bioindicators.

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“…Classic quantitative techniques (i.e., Surber samplers or dredges) usually applied to monitor the aquatic communities provide useful information for managers. However, these techniques can be limited by biased sampling and incomplete identification (Maroneze et al 2011). Consequently, barcoding of environmental DNA (eDNA) has been sug-gested as a new complementary or alternative tool in ecological monitoring Yoccoz 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several other papers have shown that gut contents of fish can be used to supplement biodiversity inventories of benthic macroinvertebrates established using classic visual quantification (Callisto et al 2002;Tupinamb as et al 2007;Maroneze et al 2011;Cook and Bundy 2012). One of the few investigations examining the potential of using DNA analyses of fish gut contents in the monitoring of ecosystem function is the study of metabarcoding metazoan diversity of coral reef fish (Leray et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovering hidden biodiversity: the use of complementary monitoring of fish diet based on DNA barcoding in freshwater ecosystems

Joo

Ventura

Vidal

et al. 2015

Ecology and Evolution

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Ecological monitoring contributes to the understanding of complex ecosystem functions. The diets of fish reflect the surrounding environment and habitats and may, therefore, act as useful integrating indicators of environmental status. It is, however, often difficult to visually identify items in gut contents to species level due to digestion of soft‐bodied prey beyond visual recognition, but new tools rendering this possible are now becoming available. We used a molecular approach to determine the species identities of consumed diet items of an introduced generalist feeder, brown trout (Salmo trutta), in 10 Tasmanian lakes and compared the results with those obtained from visual quantification of stomach contents. We obtained 44 unique taxa (OTUs) belonging to five phyla, including seven classes, using the barcode of life approach from cytochrome oxidase I (COI). Compared with visual quantification, DNA analysis showed greater accuracy, yielding a 1.4‐fold higher number of OTUs. Rarefaction curve analysis showed saturation of visually inspected taxa, while the curves from the DNA barcode did not saturate. The OTUs with the highest proportions of haplotypes were the families of terrestrial insects Formicidae, Chrysomelidae, and Torbidae and the freshwater Chironomidae. Haplotype occurrence per lake was negatively correlated with lake depth and transparency. Nearly all haplotypes were only found in one fish gut from a single lake. Our results indicate that DNA barcoding of fish diets is a useful and complementary method for discovering hidden biodiversity.

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Fish as ecological tools to complement biodiversity inventories of benthic macroinvertebrates

Cited by 13 publications

References 64 publications

Isotopic variation in five species of stream fishes under the influence of different land uses

Isotopic variation in five species of stream fishes under the influence of different land uses

Fish stomach contents in benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage assessments

Discovering hidden biodiversity: the use of complementary monitoring of fish diet based on DNA barcoding in freshwater ecosystems

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