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Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the Southern California Bight

Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, migrates from spawning grounds in the western Pacific Ocean to foraging grounds in the California Current System (CCS), where they are thought to specialize on high energy, surface schooling prey. However, there has been substantial variability in estimates...

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Autores principales: Portner, Elan J., Snodgrass, Owyn, Dewar, Heidi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9409590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36006923
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272048
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author Portner, Elan J.
Snodgrass, Owyn
Dewar, Heidi
author_facet Portner, Elan J.
Snodgrass, Owyn
Dewar, Heidi
author_sort Portner, Elan J.
collection PubMed
description Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, migrates from spawning grounds in the western Pacific Ocean to foraging grounds in the California Current System (CCS), where they are thought to specialize on high energy, surface schooling prey. However, there has been substantial variability in estimates of forage availability in the CCS over the past two decades. To examine the foraging ecology of juvenile T. orientalis in the face this variability, we quantified the diet and prey energetics of 963 individuals collected in the Southern California Bight (SCB) from 2008 to 2016. Using classification and regression tree analysis, we observed three sampling periods characterized by distinct prey. In 2008, T. orientalis diet was dominated by midwater lanternfishes and enoploteuthid squids. During 2009–2014, T. orientalis consumed diverse fishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans. Only in 2015–2016 did T. orientalis specialize on relatively high energy, surface schooling prey (e.g. anchovy, pelagic red crab). Despite containing the smallest prey, stomachs collected in 2009–2014 had the highest number of prey and similar total energetic contents to stomachs collected in 2015–2016. We demonstrate that T. orientalis is an opportunistic predator that can exhibit distinct foraging behaviors to exploit diverse forage. Expanding our understanding of T. orientalis foraging ecology will improve our ability to predict its responses to changes in resource availability as well as potential impacts on the fisheries it supports.
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spelling pubmed-94095902022-08-26 Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the Southern California Bight Portner, Elan J. Snodgrass, Owyn Dewar, Heidi PLoS One Research Article Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, migrates from spawning grounds in the western Pacific Ocean to foraging grounds in the California Current System (CCS), where they are thought to specialize on high energy, surface schooling prey. However, there has been substantial variability in estimates of forage availability in the CCS over the past two decades. To examine the foraging ecology of juvenile T. orientalis in the face this variability, we quantified the diet and prey energetics of 963 individuals collected in the Southern California Bight (SCB) from 2008 to 2016. Using classification and regression tree analysis, we observed three sampling periods characterized by distinct prey. In 2008, T. orientalis diet was dominated by midwater lanternfishes and enoploteuthid squids. During 2009–2014, T. orientalis consumed diverse fishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans. Only in 2015–2016 did T. orientalis specialize on relatively high energy, surface schooling prey (e.g. anchovy, pelagic red crab). Despite containing the smallest prey, stomachs collected in 2009–2014 had the highest number of prey and similar total energetic contents to stomachs collected in 2015–2016. We demonstrate that T. orientalis is an opportunistic predator that can exhibit distinct foraging behaviors to exploit diverse forage. Expanding our understanding of T. orientalis foraging ecology will improve our ability to predict its responses to changes in resource availability as well as potential impacts on the fisheries it supports. Public Library of Science 2022-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC9409590/ /pubmed/36006923 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272048 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Portner, Elan J.
Snodgrass, Owyn
Dewar, Heidi
Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the Southern California Bight
title Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the Southern California Bight
title_full Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the Southern California Bight
title_fullStr Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the Southern California Bight
title_full_unstemmed Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the Southern California Bight
title_short Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the Southern California Bight
title_sort pacific bluefin tuna, thunnus orientalis, exhibits a flexible feeding ecology in the southern california bight
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9409590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36006923
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272048
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