Using the otolith sulcus to aid in prey identification and improve estimates of prey size in diet studies of a piscivorous predator.

ABSTRACT: Diet studies are fundamental for understanding trophic connections in marine ecosystems. In the southeastern US, the common bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus is the predominant marine mammal in coastal waters, but its role as a top predator has received little attention. Diet studies of piscivorous predators, like bottlenose dolphins, start with assessing prey otoliths recovered from stomachs or feces, but digestive erosion hampers species identification and underestimates fish weight (FW). To compensate, FW is often estimated from the least affected otoliths and scaled to other otoliths, which also introduces bias. The sulcus, an otolith surface feature, has a species-specific shape of its ostium and caudal extents, which is within the otolith edge for some species. We explored

SUBMITTER: Byrd BL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7160159 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature