Standardising fish stomach content analysis: The importance of prey condition

Buckland, Amanda; Baker, Ronald J.; Loneragan, N.R.; Sheaves, Marcus

doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2017.08.003

Cited by 100 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Quantifying the dietary composition of predator fishes in the context of relative prey availability in the environment is necessary to investigate the ecological relationships between predators and their prey and to determine predator-prey preference. Traditionally, diet analyses have been conducted through morphological identification of prey collected from predator gastrointestinal contents, but identification of diet contents using these methods is often inaccurate (Buckland, Baker, Loneragan, & Sheaves, 2017;Schooley et al, 2008). More recent molecular methods have been applied to overcome some of these shortcomings (Berry et al, 2015;Carreon-Martinez, Johnson, Ludsin, & Heath, 2011;Sheppard & Hardwood, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

18S rRNA metabarcoding diet analysis of a predatory fish community across seasonal changes in prey availability

Waraniak

Marsh

Scribner

2019

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Predator–prey relationships are important ecological interactions, affecting biotic community composition and energy flow through a system, and are of interest to ecologists and managers. Morphological diet analysis has been the primary method used to quantify the diets of predators, but emerging molecular techniques using genetic data can provide more accurate estimates of relative diet composition. This study used sequences from the 18S V9 rRNA barcoding region to identify prey items in the gastrointestinal (GI) tracts of predatory fishes. Predator GI samples were taken from the Black River, Cheboygan Co., MI, USA (n = 367 samples, 12 predator species) during periods of high prey availability, including the larval stage of regionally threatened lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens Rafinesque 1817) in late May/early June of 2015 and of relatively lower prey availability in early July of 2015. DNA was extracted and sequenced from 355 samples (96.7%), and prey DNA was identified in 286 of the 355 samples (80.6%). Prey were grouped into 33 ecologically significant taxonomic groups based on the lowest taxonomic level sequences that could be identified using sequences available on GenBank. Changes in the makeup of diet composition, dietary overlap, and predator preference were analyzed comparing the periods of high and low prey abundance. Some predator species exhibited significant seasonal changes in diet composition. Dietary overlap was slightly but significantly higher during the period of high prey abundance; however, there was little change in predator preference. This suggests that change in prey availability was the driving factor in changing predator diet composition and dietary overlap. This study demonstrates the utility of molecular diet analysis and how temporal variability in community composition adds complexity to predator–prey interactions.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

18S rRNA metabarcoding diet analysis of a predatory fish community across seasonal changes in prey availability

Waraniak

Marsh

Scribner

2019

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Current studies on feeding habits (including stable isotopes), in fact, mainly relied on the morphological identification of prey remains in stomach content: this method is labor-intensive, time expensive and depends heavily upon the skills of the taxonomist identifying semi-digested fragments. Moreover, it precludes the identification of foods that leave no hard remains or lack diagnostic taxonomic features; thus, the contribution of some prey to the diet composition might be underestimated or neglected (Baker, Buckland, & Sheaves, 2014;Buckland, Baker, Loneragan, & Sheaves, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A metabarcoding approach for the feeding habits of European hake in the Adriatic Sea

Riccioni

Stagioni

Piccinetti

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

European hake (Merluccius merluccius) is one of the most economically important fish for the Mediterranean Sea. It is an important predator of deep upper shelf slope communities currently characterized by growth overexploitation: the understanding of hake's diet might support next generation management tools. However, all current European hake diet studies depend on the morphological identification of prey remains in stomach content, with consequent limitations. In this study, we set up a metabarcoding approach based on cytochrome oxidase I PCR amplification and Miseq Illumina paired‐end sequencing of M. merluccius stomach content remains and compared the results to classic morphological analyses. A total of 95 stomach contents of M. merluccius sampled in the North‐Central Adriatic Sea were analyzed with both the metabarcoding and morphological approaches. Metabarcoding clearly outperformed the morphological method in the taxonomic identification of prey describing more complex trophic relationships even when considering the morphological identification of 200 stomach contents. Statistical analysis of diet composition revealed a weak differentiation among the hake's size classes, confirming an opportunistic feeding behavior. All the analyses performed showed the presence of a core of shared prey among the size classes and a cloud of size‐specific prey. Our study highlights the exceptional potential of metabarcoding as an approach to provide unprecedented taxonomic resolution in the diet of M. merluccius and potentially of other marine predators, due to the broad‐spectrum of detection of the primers used. A thorough description of these complex trophic relationships is fundamental for the implementation of an ecosystem approach to fisheries.

show abstract

“…; Buckland et al. ), we used W as our diet metric because the diet data required by multispecies and ecosystem models are based on bulk rather than occurrence. Rare prey that did not contribute at least 1% to any predator's diet were excluded from these analyses.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This assumption holds for prey with similar digestion rates; thus, harder-to-digest prey (e.g., crustaceans) may be overrepresented in our diets. Although other metrics, such as frequency of occurrence, are less influenced by differential digestion (Baker et al 2014;Buckland et al 2017), we used W as our diet metric because the diet data required by multispecies and ecosystem models are based on bulk rather than occurrence. Rare prey that did not contribute at least 1% to any predator's diet were excluded from these analyses.…”

Section: Identification Of Estuarine Trophic Guildsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Importance of Sample Gear in the Identification of Trophic Guilds and Forage Species in a Large Lagoonal Estuary

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Food habits in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, are poorly described despite the estuary's large size and importance as nursery and fisheries habitat. We conducted the first multi‐year, multispecies food habits study in Pamlico Sound, sampling the stomach contents of 16,913 predators representing 25 species. Predators were sampled from fisheries‐independent trawl and gill‐net surveys. We used multivariate analyses to compare diets between surveys, used agglomerative hierarchical cluster analyses and similarity profiles to identify significant trophic guilds, and identified forage fish using multiple approaches (qualitative classification criteria, connectance, and supportive role to fishery ecosystems [SURF]). The diets of predators sampled from the trawl survey were significantly different than predators sampled from the gill‐net survey. Mysids and anchovies were more important for trawl‐caught predators, with the majority of those predators belonging to nonpiscivorous guilds. Half of the gill‐net survey predators were piscivorous and relied more heavily on Atlantic Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus and sciaenids. Differences in the level of piscivory between the surveys are most likely a result of larger predators being sampled in gill nets relative to trawls. There was little agreement among approaches in forage species identification, and only anchovies in the trawl survey were identified as a forage species using all approaches. Quantitative metrics identified forage species (e.g., Spot Leiostomus xanthurus and invertebrates) that were not identified by qualitative classification criteria. Our work shows the effect of gear size selection on estimates of predator diets and the need to use a variety of gears that sample a wide range of predator sizes. Additionally, the identification of forage species requires an evaluation of criteria outside of life history characteristics and a greater emphasis on the contribution of a prey species to a predator's diet.

show abstract

Standardising fish stomach content analysis: The importance of prey condition

Cited by 100 publications

References 66 publications

18S rRNA metabarcoding diet analysis of a predatory fish community across seasonal changes in prey availability

18S rRNA metabarcoding diet analysis of a predatory fish community across seasonal changes in prey availability

A metabarcoding approach for the feeding habits of European hake in the Adriatic Sea

Importance of Sample Gear in the Identification of Trophic Guilds and Forage Species in a Large Lagoonal Estuary

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About