Response of benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages to round (Neogobius melanostomus, Pallas 1814) and tubenose (Proterorhinus semilunaris, Heckel 1837) goby predation pressure

The diet of reservoir perch before, during and after establishment of non-native tubenose goby

“…While many recent studies have described the distribution of tubenose goby (Naseka et al, 2005;Hayden and Miner, 2009;Szaloky et al, 2015), its genetic diversity (Dillon and Stepien, 2001;Stepien et al, 2005) and their parasites (Kvach and Oguz, 2009;Huyse et al, 2015;Kvach et al, 2016), little or no information is presently available on the species' relationship with native fish species and its role in the food chain (but see Mikl et al, 2017). The European perch (Perca fluviatilis) is one of the most common fish predators in European waters, and certainly along the rip-rap banks of the Musov reservoir (Adámek et al, 2010).…”

“…Further, while the consumption of gobiids by predatory fishes in general has been widely studied in North American waters (e.g. Kornis et al, 2013), it remains relatively understudied in Europe (but see Plachocki et al, 2012;Hempel et al, 2016;Mikl et al, 2017). Invasive non-native fish such as tubenose gobies have the potential to severely affect ecosystem relationships (Kornis et al, 2013) by causing changes to local food webs (Balshine et al, 2005;Copp et al, 2005;Johnson et al, 2005).…”

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“…Whilst the results indicated that the tropic positions of P. semilunaris and N. fluviatilis were variable between the lakes, suggesting some context dependency, their isotopic niches were never significantly larger than co-existing fishes and, in two lakes (Sapanca and Uluabat), they were highly divergent with no overlap. These results were contrary to predictions that the gobies would have relatively large niches with high overlap, with the prediction based on the generalist feeding strategy of the gobies that was inferred from stomach contents analysis of the fishes in both their native and invasive range (Grabowska et al, 2009;Adámek et al 2010;Vašek et al, 2014;Mikl et al, 2017). It was only in Lake İznik where the analysed fishes showed some overlap in their isotopic niches and thus the potential for competitive interactions.…”

“…In both their native and invasive range, studies on their trophic relationships with other fishes remain limited (Grabowska, Grabowksi, & Kostecka, 2009;Vašek, Všeticková, Roche, & Jurajda, 2014;Mikl et al, 2017). This is despite these data having fundamental importance for understanding their ecological interactions in their native range and for informing their ecological risk assessment in their non-native range (Copp, 2013).…”

“…Correspondingly, to assess their trophic ecology and generate new knowledge on trophic relationships of invasive fishes in their native range for application to ecological risk assessments, the aim here was to assess the trophic ecology of native P. semilunaris and N. fluviatilis in relation to native species in three lakes that provided a gradient of environmental characters and fish assemblages. As these gobies have a generalist and highly flexible feeding strategies (Grabowska et al, 2009;Adámek, Andreji, & Gallardo, 2007;Adámek, Jurajda, Prášek, & Sukop, 2010;Vašek et al, 2014;Mikl et al, 2017), it was predicted that compared with other fishes, they would have relatively large trophic niche sizes, with trophic overlap with other species that indicate high potential for competitive interactions.…”