Coexistence of fish species in a large lowland river: food niche partitioning between small-sized percids, cyprinids and sticklebacks in submersed macrophytes.

ABSTRACT: In the spring and summer of each year, large patches of submersed aquatic macrophytes overgrow the bottom of the alluvial Warta River downstream of a large dam reservoir owing to water management practices. Environmental variables, macroinvertebrates (zoobenthos and epiphytic fauna, zooplankton) and fish abundance and biomass were assessed at this biologically productive habitat to learn intraseasonal dynamics of food types, and their occurrence in the gut contents of small-sized roach, dace, perch, ruffe and three-spined stickleback. Gut fullness coefficient, niche breadth and niche overlap indicated how the fishes coexist in the macrophytes. Chironomidae dominated in the diet of the percids. However, ruffe consumed mostly benthic chironomids, while perch epiphytic chironomids and zooplan

SUBMITTER: Dukowska M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4217722 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature