Preliminary insights of a mixed-species shark aggregation: a case study of two carcharhinids from the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

species co-occurred and share the study site, their finerscale associations revealed temporal partitioning between species and species assortment in sandbar sharks. The multi-species network was also structured by sex. The difference between species may indicate separate strategies and temporal niche partitioning at the aggregation site. The particularly warmer temperatures (~ 5-10 °C warmer) caused by the electric power plant suggest that female dusky sharks follow the thermal niche-fecundity hypothesis by selecting warmer waters to optimize gestation, while male sandbar sharks socialize at the site. This study represents the first attempt to examine the finescale structure of a mixed-species aggregation of sharks and provides new insights into the shark's social structures through tolerance of each other and social-niche partitioning in this mixed-species aggregation.

Preliminary study of shark microbiota at a unique mix-species shark aggregation site, in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

“…Bigal., pers. comm., 22 August 2022;Zemah-Shamir et al, 2022a). Sex segregations in sharks, and other mixed groups, have been previously documented in different places around the world such leopard sharks (T. semifasciata; Nosal et al, 2013;Doane et al, 2022), Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos (Economakis and Lobel, 1998) and Carcharodon carcharias (Schilds et al, 2019).…”

“…The shark aggregation near the Israeli coast (Barash et al, 2018;Zemah-Shamir et al, 2022a) is localized and unique with consideration to its proximity to a coastal development site. First, the conditions at this site are associated with anthropogenic influences and includes warm temperature (5°C-10°C above the ambient temperature, all year long), increased salinity and organic matter enrichment (from the Hadera stream; Ministry of Environmental Protection, 2020).…”