Highly specialized feeding habits of the rabbitfish Chimaera monstrosa in the deep sea ecosystem of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea

Autor: Mónica Tamayo, Marta Coll, Joan Navarro, Claudio Barría
Přispěvatelé: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
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ISSN: 1439-0426
0175-8659
2015-1780
DOI: 10.1111/jai.14241
Popis: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables.-- The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request
Trophic studies are key to understand the ecological role of marine species in natural ecosystems. In this study, we examined the trophic ecology of the holocephalan rabbitfish Chimaera monstrosa, a demersal chondrichthyan considered Near Threatened by the Mediterranean red list assessment of the IUCN. The study was based on the analysis of the stomach content of 86 individuals inhabiting deep-sea waters of the Gulf of Lions (northwestern Mediterranean Sea). Additionally, to the description of the diet and trophic position of this species, we compared its diet between sexes and maturity stages. The results revealed that the rabbitfish in this Mediterranean ecosystem is a mesopredator, specialized on the consumption of crustaceans and feeding almost exclusively on the decapod Monodaeus couchii, independently of sex or maturity stage. These results grant new information about the trophic ecology of this rarely studied species in the Mediterranean Sea
JN was funded by the Spanish National Program Ramón y Cajal (RYC-2015-17809). This study is a contribution to the projects RESNEP (CTM2017-82991-C2-1-R, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain) and ECOTRANS (CTM2011-26333, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain). This work acknowledges the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation(CEX2019-000928-S)
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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