Trophic Relationships of Fishes Occurring Within a Surf Zone Habitat in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

We studied trophic relationships of Florida pompano (Trachinotus carolinus), gulf kingfish (Menticirrhus littoralis), scaled sardine (Harengu/a jaguana~ striped anchovy (Anchoa hepsetus) and dusky anchovy (A. /yo/epis) during their spring residency in the Horn Island, Mississippi, surf zone. Harengu/a jaguana, A. /yo/epis and A. hepsetus were zooplanktivores, utilizing primarily calanoid copepods, mysids and various decapod larvae. Menticirrhus /ittoralis and T. caro/inus utilized benthic prey including Donax, Emerita and polychaetes; however, small pompano also fed on zooplankton. Menticirrhus littoralis, T. carolinus, H. jaguana and A. lyo/epis also showed distinct dietary changes with increasing fish size. Three species, A. lyolepis, H. jaguana and M. littoralis fed at least partially at night, while T. carolinus and A. hepsetus were primarily diurnal predators. Cluster analysis of size intervals of all species based on presence or absence of prey taxa formed groups consistent with taxonomic relationships, thus indicating considerable interspecific resource separation.

Moon, tidal and diel influences on catch composition of fishes in the surf zone of Pontal do Sul beach, Paraná

“…A greater efficiency in the early morning low tide capture occurred, not only in this work, but also in the samplings performed by LASIAK (1984). In other areas, despite the absence ofcorrelation with the tide, again a greater number of individuals were present in the early morning catches (MODDE & Ross 1981;Ross et of. 1987).…”

Efeito do grau de exposição às ondas sobre a comunidade de peixes juvenis em praias arenosas do Município do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

“…Harengula clupeola não apresentou um padrão definido com relação às zonas de batimento, tendo apresentado pico na zona abrigada no outono e na zona muito exposta na primavera. Isto pode ser devido ao seu hábito planctófagos, portanto não dependente exclusivamente do gradiente de exposição às ondas e, sim relacionado ao movimento das correntes associados à renovação rápida dos recursos planctônicos (Modde & Ross 1983). Umbrina coroides também apresentou ampla distribuição em relação ao nível de batimento, sendo associada à zona abrigada na primavera e à zona exposta no inverno.…”

“…Umbrina coroides também apresentou ampla distribuição em relação ao nível de batimento, sendo associada à zona abrigada na primavera e à zona exposta no inverno. Trachinotus carolinus, por outro lado, ocorreu com uma maior abundância na zona abrigada durante a primavera embora seja citada como uma espécie típica de zonas expostas (Modde & Ross 1983). Esta espécie é praticamente ausente das praias arenosas no interior da Baía de Sepetiba, embora ocorra em abundância em praias adjacentes a esta baía (Pessanha et al 2000).…”

Spatial and temporal variations of diurnal ichthyofauna on surf-zone of São Francisco do Itabapoana beaches, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil

“…Estuarine fish communities represent a combination of freshwater and marine species that live on the threshold of its distribution, other estuarine residents and migrants that reach the estuarine zone at spawning or feeding season (Maes et al, 1998;Cardona, 2000). With the nearshore coast, surf-zones and estuaries of tropical and temperate zones act as nursery, providing abundant food resources (Modde and Ross, 1981) and protection against predators (Anderson et al, 1977). As an important beach modeler (Hoefel, 1998) and transporter of organic matter and nutrients between continent and sea (Yañez-Aranciabia, 1978), the surf-zones support a widely fauna, mainly zooplankton and fishes (Maes et al, 1998).…”

“…In fact, it has been observed that environmental complexity in terms of wave exposure and microhabitats formation, like seagrass and reefs, are related to composition and dynamics of surf-zone fish assemblages (Clark et al, 1996;Clark, 1997). Surf-zone ichthyofauna are both seasonal and diel dynamic (Modde and Ross, 1981). Lasiak (1984) accepted that surf-zones concentrated a wide ichthyofauna, relatively high species richness, comparing to better-known environments, like estuaries and shelf.…”