TY - JOUR
T1 - Feeding habits of Padogobius bonelli (Bonaparte, 1846) (Osteichthyes, Gobiidae)
T2 - The importance of fish dimensions and hydrological conditions
AU - Bo, T.
AU - Cammarata, M.
AU - Candiotto, A.
AU - Fenoglio, S.
AU - López-Rodríguez, M. J.
AU - de Figueroa, J. M.Tierno
AU - Malacarne, G.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank E. Coduti, M. Grenna, and F. Gallo for their help with field work. The final version of the manuscript benefited greatly from the insight provided by G.B. Delmastro and three anonymous reviewers. This work was supported by Provincia di Alessandria ATF Grants.
PY - 2011/9
Y1 - 2011/9
N2 - The feeding habits of Padogobius bonelli (Bonaparte, 1846) were studied in two sites in the Orba stream (NW Italy), characterized by natural or altered flow conditions. The species fed mainly on aquatic insects, positively selecting Chironomidae, Simuliidae, Hydroptilidae and negatively Baetidae and other taxa. We hypothesised that size, mobility and handling time were on the basis of the detected feeding preferences, more than prey abundance in the substratum. When studying the variation of the diet with size, we detected that trophic spectrum of the species increases with fish dimensions. Comparing the populations of the two sites, we detected some interesting differences: fish from the natural flow site were generally larger and presented a broader trophic spectrum than fish from the altered flow site. Our study supports the hypothesis that fluctuating water levels may have evident impacts at different biotic scales, from biodiversity reductions to diet alterations.
AB - The feeding habits of Padogobius bonelli (Bonaparte, 1846) were studied in two sites in the Orba stream (NW Italy), characterized by natural or altered flow conditions. The species fed mainly on aquatic insects, positively selecting Chironomidae, Simuliidae, Hydroptilidae and negatively Baetidae and other taxa. We hypothesised that size, mobility and handling time were on the basis of the detected feeding preferences, more than prey abundance in the substratum. When studying the variation of the diet with size, we detected that trophic spectrum of the species increases with fish dimensions. Comparing the populations of the two sites, we detected some interesting differences: fish from the natural flow site were generally larger and presented a broader trophic spectrum than fish from the altered flow site. Our study supports the hypothesis that fluctuating water levels may have evident impacts at different biotic scales, from biodiversity reductions to diet alterations.
KW - Diet
KW - Hydrological alterations
KW - Padanian goby
KW - Padogobius bonelli
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80051905374&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/11250001003777168
DO - 10.1080/11250001003777168
M3 - Article
SN - 1125-0003
VL - 78
SP - 390
EP - 397
JO - Italian Journal of Zoology
JF - Italian Journal of Zoology
IS - 3
ER -