Redefining the piscivore assemblage of shallow estuarine nursery habitats

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 291:197-213 (2005) - doi:10.3354/meps291197 Redefining the piscivore assemblage of shallow estuarine nursery habitats Ronald Baker1,2,*, Marcus Sheaves1 1School of Marine Biology and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia2Coastal CRC, Indooroopilly Sciences Centre, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland 4068, Australia *Email: ronald.baker@jcu.edu.au ABSTRACT: It is often suggested that there are few piscivorous fishes in shallow estuarine habitats worldwide, and consequently that these habitats are valuable as nurseries for juvenile fishes because they provide refuge from predation. Information on the dietary habits of predatory fishes from tropical estuaries remains limited to broad summaries that lack quantitative detail on the fish components of the diet. Consequently, it remains unclear which predators in shallow tropical estuarine nurseries target new recruits. To define the assemblage of piscivorous fishes relevant to the functioning of shallow water nurseries, we examined the diets of predatory fishes from shallow (<1.5 m) sandy habitats in the lower reaches of 17 tropical estuaries over 6 yr. In total, 51 taxa from 21 families fed on fish, and the piscivore assemblage included many taxa and size classes that have been previously overlooked. Piscivores ranged in size from 15 to 755 mm and the majority of taxa were piscivorous to some degree from sizes well below 100 mm. All of the smaller piscivores (<100 mm) mainly preyed on small new recruits, while only some of the larger piscivores did so. The taxonomic and functional diversity in the piscivore assemblage, and the fish community as a whole, highlights the complexity of the role of predation in the functioning of shallow tropical estuarine nurseries. Despite this complexity, it is apparent that predation has the potential to be a major structuring force on shallow water tropical estuarine fish communities. KEY WORDS: Estuary · Nursery ground · Refuge · Piscivory · Diet · Ontogeny Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 291. Online publication date: April 28, 2005 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2005 Inter-Research.