Marine Ecology Progress Series
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14938
copiedStrong diet and trophic niche overlap of Atlantic cod Gadus morhua and black sea bass Centropristis striata in warming southern New England waters
ABSTRACT:
In the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, climate warming is driving new ecological interactions as temperate black sea bass Centropristis striata abundance increases in the southernmost extent of boreal Atlantic cod Gadus morhua. We examined dietary and trophic niche overlap of black sea bass (n = 69) and Atlantic cod (n = 67) in southern New England using stomach content analysis and bulk and compound-specific amino acid isotope analyses. Both species exhibited highly selective (Levins’ index: 0.17 ± 0.16) and overlapping (Morisita-Horn index: 0.4 ± 0.5) diets dominated by decapod crustaceans (frequency of occurrence: 82-89% of stomachs, total diet wet weight: 72-79%). Evidence of dietary selectivity for juvenile cancer crabs, like Jonah crab Cancerborealis, may constrain recruitment and increase vulnerability of the emerging Jonah crab fishery in southern New England to predation. Both species exhibited overlap in isotopic niche (Bayesian standard ellipse area overlap: 59 ± 19%) and baseline nitrogen isotope values (Atlantic cod: 7.5 ± 1.7‰; black sea bass: 7.7 ± 1.5‰), coupled with functionally identical trophic positions (Atlantic cod: 3.7 ± 0.4; black sea bass: 3.6 ± 0.2) that corroborate stomach content data, indicating that Atlantic cod and black sea bass were foraging on the same diets over relatively small ranges compared to cross-shelf isotope gradients. Our multi-metric foraging data suggest that the niche overlap between these 2 demersal predators has a variety of potential implications for their top-down control on the structure and function of southern New England ecosystems, as well as the management of fisheries that depend on them.
KEYWORDS
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Nina Santos (Corresponding Author)
- Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02886, USA
- Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons, MD 20688, USA
Joseph Langan (Co-author)
- Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02886, USA
- Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA
Christopher Mayer (Co-author)
- Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02886, USA
Kelton McMahon (Co-author)
- Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02886, USA
Handling Editor:
Stephen Wing, Dunedin, New Zealand
Reviewers:
K. J. Krumsick and 2 anonymous referees
Acknowledgements:
The present work was part of N.S.’s MSc thesis at the URI-GSO. Funding was provided by the Rhode Island Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and The Nature Conservancy Global Marine Team (KWM: 07898) and the University of Rhode Island Division of Research & Economic Development. N.S. was supported by a URI-GSO Fish Trawl Time Series Assistantship. We thank Captain Rick Bellavance of Priority Fishing Charters for his assistance in sample collections; Dr. Christine Denisovich for assistance with RI-DEM stomach content analysis protocols; Chloe Gilligan, Sierra Gray, Devin Hennigan, Dr. Catherine Nowakowski, Joshua Pi, Dr. Matthew Ramirez, and Angela Stahl for assistance in sample collection, laboratory processing, and coding; Dr. Rick McKinney of the Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division of the Environmental Protection Agency for bulk stable isotope analysis assistance; and Drs. Jeremy Collie and Scott McWilliams for insight on experimental design and comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript as thesis committee members for N.S.