Morphological-dietary relationships within two assemblages of marine demersal fishes |
| |
Authors: | Mary Labropoulou George Markakis |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, University of Crete, P.O. Box, 2208, GR-71409 Iraklion, Crete, Greece;(2) Institute of Marine Biology of Crete, P.O. Box, 2214, GR-71003 Iraklion, Crete, Greece;(3) Present address: National Center for Marine Research, Agios Kosmas 16604, Athens, Greece (e-mail |
| |
Abstract: | In this study we have used morphological characters related to feeding and prey capture and dietary data to investigate the
trophic organization within two assemblages of marine demersal fishes. Morphological and dietary disparities within fish assemblages
were estimated from species similarities based on Euclidean distances plus species projections on the principal axes from
multivariate analyses. The analyses of the morphological variables indicated that species in each assemblage comprised morphologically
distinct groups strongly influenced by trophically linked characters. Stomach content analyses revealed that fish species
in each assemblage were classified into three basic feeding groups: polychaete-shrimp feeders, crab feeders and fish feeders.
These results indicated that food resource partitioning was operating within each assemblage. However, when morphological
and trophic data were compared no significant correlations were found. The results did not particularly support the ecomorphological
hypothesis that dietary differences are due to morphological differences, since similar diets do not correspond to similar
morphologies. The patterns of trophic organization within the fish assemblages examined, possibly reflect differences among
species due not only to the effect of ecological demands on morphology but also by their evolutionary history and constructional
constraints imposed by phylogeny.
This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
| |
Keywords: | morphology diet resource partitioning trophic organization ecomorphological correlations |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|