Abstract
AbstractDiet overlap and the importance of plankton were investigated by comparing stomach contents and 13C and 15N isotopes using a Bayesian linear mixed model of early juvenile, juvenile and adult Sardinela lemuru Bleeker during a coastal upwelling event in southeastern Sulu Sea. Assimilated food of all life stages was mainly due to the preferential ingestion of large size meso‐zooplankton at inshore areas while keeping the ability to ingest smaller zooplankton sizes. Few phytoplankton cells were ingested, and only by adults. Early juveniles and adults showed more depleted δ13C values than juveniles, indicating ontogenetic and spatial dietary shift with juveniles ingesting large herbivorous zooplankton in deeper inshore areas least influenced by terrestrial food particles. Hence, S. lemuru is chiefly an omnivorous zooplanktivore, but combined approaches of stomach contents and C and N stable isotope analyses provided new insights of its trophic ecology useful to the management of the species in the Sulu Sea.
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