Is There a Relationship between Fish Cannibalism and Latitude or Species Richness?

ABSTRACT: Cannibalism has been commonly observed in fish from northern and alpine regions and less frequently reported for subtropical and tropical fish in more diverse communities. Assuming all else being equal, cannibalism should be more common in communities with lower species richness because the probability of encountering conspecific versus heterospecific prey would be higher. A global dataset was compiled to determine if cannibalism occurrence is associated with species richness and latitude. Cannibalism occurrence, local species richness and latitude were recorded for 4,100 populations of 2,314 teleost fish species. Relationships between cannibalism, species richness and latitude were evaluated using generalized linear mixed models. Species richness was an important predictor of cannibalism,

SUBMITTER: Pereira LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5266261 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature