Abstract
AbstractFood availability is a key determinant of the nursery value of a given habitat for larval and juvenile fishes. Growth, survival, and recruitment success are often inter-correlated and influenced by prey availability and associated feeding success. This is likely true for the threatened population of Longfin Smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) in the San Francisco Estuary (SFE) which has collapsed in recent decades along with its preferred prey. In years with high precipitation and freshwater outflow, larval Longfin Smelt are found in shallow wetland habitats throughout the SFE, but variation in the availability of food and feeding success in these habitats remains unexplored. To examine spatial variation in the trophic value of different rearing habitats, we quantified variation in prey availability, feeding success, and prey selection for larval and juvenile Longfin Smelt captured in restored tidal marshes, sloughs, and open-water habitats in the northern and southern SFE. Prey abundance varied spatially, with densities approximately tenfold greater in southern sloughs and restored tidal ponds relative to northern and open-water habitats. Feeding success of larval Longfin Smelt was positively correlated with both fish length and prey density. Larval Longfin Smelt fed selectively on the copepod Eurytemora affinis, with larger individuals (> 25 mm total length) exhibiting an ontogenetic diet shift to larger mysid shrimps. Our results suggest that wetland habitats across the SFE vary greatly in their trophic value, with previously unexplored habitats exhibiting the highest densities of prey and the highest foraging success for larval Longfin Smelt.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Ecology,Aquatic Science,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference76 articles.
1. Anderson, J.T. 1988. A review of size dependant survival during pre-recruit stages of fishes in relation to recruitment. Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fishery Science 8: 55–66.
2. Anderson, M.J., C.J.F. Braak, and T. Braak. 2006. Permutation Tests for Multi-Factorial Analysis of Variance 73: 85–113.
3. Barbier, Edward B., Sally D. Hacker, Chris Kennedy, Evamaria W. Kock, A.C. Stier, and B. R. S. 2011. The value of estuarine and coastal ecosystem services. Ecological Monographs 81: 169–193.
4. Baxter, R., F. Feyrer, M. Nobriga, and T. Sommer. 2008. Pelagic organism decline progress report: 2007 synthesis of results.
5. Beck, M., K. Heck, K. Able, D. Childers, D. Eggleston, and B. Gillanders. 2001. The identification, conservation, and management of estuarine and marine nurseries for fish and invertebrates. BioScience 51: 633–641.
Cited by
3 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献