Trophic niche overlap among dolphinfish and co-occurring tunas near the northern edge of their range in the western North Atlantic

Trophic ecology of barrelfish (Hyperoglyphe perciformis) in oceanic waters of southeast Florida

“…13 C is often more labile, thus δ 13 C of particulate organic matter is often depleted during remineralization near the pycnocline and fluctuates with depth within 400 m of the surface, suggesting the δ 13 C signature of barrelfish is a result of consuming carbon transported to depth from the euphotic zone by pyrosomids (Jeffrey et al 1983, Drits et al 1992, Druffel et al 1992, Andersen and Sardou 1994, Perissinoto et al 2007. This is further supported by the consumption of epipelagic organisms by king mackerel and dolphinfish in this study (and others) and their rather limited vertical range, rarely exceeding m in the case of dolphinfish (Table 1; Finucance et al 1990, Oxenford 1999Oxenford and Hunte 1999, Rudershausen et al 2010, Tripp-Valdez et al 2010, Merten et al 2014a, Moore 2014, Teffer et al 2015. However, dolphinfish exhibit highly migratory behavior and king mackerel exhibit seasonal migrations in southeast Florida which may lead to the substantially broader range in δ 13 C in these epipelagic species when compared to barrelfish (Sutter III et al 1991, Schaefer and Fable Jr. 1994, Merten et al 2014b, Merten et al 2016).…”

The role of sand lances (Ammodytes sp.) in the Northwest Atlantic Ecosystem: A synthesis of current knowledge with implications for conservation and management

“…Six previously published studies used data from the NMFS trawl survey, but augmented sampling of certain species across seasonal periods including red ( U. chuss , Phycidae), offshore, silver and white hakes (Garrison & Link, 2000; Link, Lucey, & Melgey, 2012), little ( L. erinacea , Rajidae) and winter skates (Smith, Collie, & Lengyel, 2014), scup and black sea bass ( Centropristis striata , Serranidae) (Byron & Link, 2010), Atlantic mackerel and Atlantic herring (Suca et al, 2018), as well as summer flounder, bluefish, goosefish (Staudinger, 2004) and longfin inshore squid (Hunsicker & Essington, 2006). The remaining studies represented predator diets from inshore and estuarine habitats (Gelsleichter, Musick, & Nichols, 1999; Novak, Carlson, Wheeler, Wippelhauser, & Sulikowski, 2017; Wuenschel, Able, Vasslides, & Byrne, 2013), offshore areas of the continental slope and pelagic waters (Chase, 2002; Logan, Golet, & Lutcavage, 2015; Logan et al, 2011; Teffer, Staudinger, & Juanes, 2015), as well as Canadian waters (Carruthers, Neilson, Waters, & Perley, 2005; Dawe, Dalley, & Lidster, 1997; Hanson & Chouinard, 2002; Kelly & Hanson, 2013; Zamarro, 1992). A few notable areas where predation on NWA Ammodytes was extremely high included the Saco River Estuary in the Gulf of Maine, where the diets of juvenile and adult Atlantic sturgeon between 2013 and 2014 contained 85%–96% (Index of Relative Importance, IRI) of A. americanus (Novak et al, 2017).…”

“…American plaice in Newfoundland waters also showed historically high amounts (16% FO) of A. dubius during the 1990s (Zamarro, 1992), as well as pollock (7%–13% FO) in the Bay of Fundy in the 1950s and 1960s (Carruthers et al, 2005). Several studies determined that bluefin tuna, especially smaller and younger fish (Logan et al, 2011, 2015), relied heavily (up to 69% M of their diet) on NWA Ammodytes during summer and fall in the Mid‐Atlantic Bight, Southern New England, Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank regions during the late 1980s to early 2000s (Chase, 2002; Logan et al, 2011, 2015), while low amounts (<5% M) were found in sympatric yellowfin tuna in the early 2000s (Teffer et al, 2015).…”

Seasonal habitat and length influence on the trophic niche of co-occurring tropical tunas in the eastern Atlantic Ocean

“…In the highest trophic levels, transferred FA are better preserved in storage lipids than in structural lipids (Robin et al 2003, Budge et al 2012. The quantification of these ecological tracers also allows the estimation of feeding niche extent (niche space) and provides insights into resource partitioning (niche overlap) between co-occurring species (Jackson et al 2011, Layman et al 2012) including tunas (Teffer et al 2015, Sardenne et al 2016).…”