TY - JOUR

T1 - Altered feeding habits and strategies of a benthic forage fish (Fundulus heteroclitus) in chronically polluted tidal salt marshes

AU - Goto, Daisuke

AU - Wallace, William G

N1 - Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2011/7/1

Y1 - 2011/7/1

N2 - Responses in feeding ecology of a benthic forage fish, mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus), to altered prey resources were investigated in chronically polluted salt marshes (the Arthur Kill-AK, New York, USA). The diet niche breadth of the AK populations of mummichogs was significantly lower than that of the reference population, reflecting reduced benthic macroinfaunal species diversity. Most of the AK populations also had 2-3 times less food in their gut than the reference population. This disparity in gut fullness among the populations appeared to be partly due to ingested prey size shifts; some of the AK populations ingested fewer large prey than the reference population. Furthermore, benthic assemblages were strongly associated with sediment-associated mercury; gut fullness of the AK populations also significantly decreased with increasing mercury body burdens. These results indicate that chronic pollution may have directly (chemical bioaccumulation) and indirectly (reduced prey availability) altered the feeding ecology of mummichogs.

AB - Responses in feeding ecology of a benthic forage fish, mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus), to altered prey resources were investigated in chronically polluted salt marshes (the Arthur Kill-AK, New York, USA). The diet niche breadth of the AK populations of mummichogs was significantly lower than that of the reference population, reflecting reduced benthic macroinfaunal species diversity. Most of the AK populations also had 2-3 times less food in their gut than the reference population. This disparity in gut fullness among the populations appeared to be partly due to ingested prey size shifts; some of the AK populations ingested fewer large prey than the reference population. Furthermore, benthic assemblages were strongly associated with sediment-associated mercury; gut fullness of the AK populations also significantly decreased with increasing mercury body burdens. These results indicate that chronic pollution may have directly (chemical bioaccumulation) and indirectly (reduced prey availability) altered the feeding ecology of mummichogs.

KW - Animals

KW - Diet

KW - Ecosystem

KW - Environmental Monitoring

KW - Feeding Behavior/physiology

KW - Fundulidae/physiology

KW - Geologic Sediments/chemistry

KW - Multivariate Analysis

KW - Tidal Waves

KW - Time Factors

KW - Water Pollutants, Chemical/toxicity

U2 - 10.1016/j.marenvres.2011.06.002

DO - 10.1016/j.marenvres.2011.06.002

M3 - Article

C2 - 21726897

VL - 72

SP - 75

EP - 88

JO - Marine Environmental Research

JF - Marine Environmental Research

SN - 0141-1136

IS - 1-2

ER -