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The role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis)

The weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis) is a species that is tolerant of unfavourable environmental conditions and can survive low dissolved oxygen concentrations and high water temperatures. Although this species occurs across almost the whole of Europe, and is protected in many countries, relatively...

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Autores principales: Pyrzanowski, Kacper, Zięba, Grzegorz, Dukowska, Małgorzata, Smith, Carl, Przybylski, Mirosław
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559962/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31186507
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44911-y
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author Pyrzanowski, Kacper
Zięba, Grzegorz
Dukowska, Małgorzata
Smith, Carl
Przybylski, Mirosław
author_facet Pyrzanowski, Kacper
Zięba, Grzegorz
Dukowska, Małgorzata
Smith, Carl
Przybylski, Mirosław
author_sort Pyrzanowski, Kacper
collection PubMed
description The weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis) is a species that is tolerant of unfavourable environmental conditions and can survive low dissolved oxygen concentrations and high water temperatures. Although this species occurs across almost the whole of Europe, and is protected in many countries, relatively little is known regarding its ecology. To determine the diet of weatherfish, 120 individuals from an artificial drainage canal in central Poland were collected in two seasons (spring and late summer) with contrasting abiotic condition (oxygen concentration, water temperature and transparency). Analysis of gut fullness showed that weatherfish consumed a greater quantity of food in spring (0.92 ± 0.90) compared with summer (0.20 ± 0.26). Contrary to other cobitid taxa, weatherfish fed actively during daytime in both seasons. An estimate of the importance of each dietary component indicated that the most important food categories were chironomids, copepods, Asellus aquaticus and detritus. SIMPER analysis indicated that these four categories together constituted over 65.8% of cumulative dissimilarity in the diet between seasons. Additionally, trophic niche breadth differed significantly between seasons. The study demonstrated that the weatherfish is an opportunistic feeder, consuming large quantities of detritus despite possessing a gut morphology that is atypical of a detritivore. The quantity of detritus in the gut of weatherfish was positively associated with fish total length and varied seasonally, with a greater quantity of detritus in the diet in late summer. These results demonstrate the importance of detritus as a source of energy, particularly during periods of scarcity of alternative prey categories.
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spelling pubmed-65599622019-06-19 The role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis) Pyrzanowski, Kacper Zięba, Grzegorz Dukowska, Małgorzata Smith, Carl Przybylski, Mirosław Sci Rep Article The weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis) is a species that is tolerant of unfavourable environmental conditions and can survive low dissolved oxygen concentrations and high water temperatures. Although this species occurs across almost the whole of Europe, and is protected in many countries, relatively little is known regarding its ecology. To determine the diet of weatherfish, 120 individuals from an artificial drainage canal in central Poland were collected in two seasons (spring and late summer) with contrasting abiotic condition (oxygen concentration, water temperature and transparency). Analysis of gut fullness showed that weatherfish consumed a greater quantity of food in spring (0.92 ± 0.90) compared with summer (0.20 ± 0.26). Contrary to other cobitid taxa, weatherfish fed actively during daytime in both seasons. An estimate of the importance of each dietary component indicated that the most important food categories were chironomids, copepods, Asellus aquaticus and detritus. SIMPER analysis indicated that these four categories together constituted over 65.8% of cumulative dissimilarity in the diet between seasons. Additionally, trophic niche breadth differed significantly between seasons. The study demonstrated that the weatherfish is an opportunistic feeder, consuming large quantities of detritus despite possessing a gut morphology that is atypical of a detritivore. The quantity of detritus in the gut of weatherfish was positively associated with fish total length and varied seasonally, with a greater quantity of detritus in the diet in late summer. These results demonstrate the importance of detritus as a source of energy, particularly during periods of scarcity of alternative prey categories. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-06-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6559962/ /pubmed/31186507 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44911-y Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Pyrzanowski, Kacper
Zięba, Grzegorz
Dukowska, Małgorzata
Smith, Carl
Przybylski, Mirosław
The role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis)
title The role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis)
title_full The role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis)
title_fullStr The role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis)
title_full_unstemmed The role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis)
title_short The role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis)
title_sort role of detritivory as a feeding tactic in a harsh environment – a case study of weatherfish (misgurnus fossilis)
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559962/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31186507
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44911-y
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