diet of fish populations in posidonia oceanica meadows off the island of ischia (gulf of naples, italy)饮食的鱼类种群伊大洋洲草地该岛的坐骨(意大利那不勒斯湾).pdfVIP

Vol.2, No.11, 1274-1286 (2010) Natural Science /10.4236/ns.2010.211154 Diet of fish populations in posidonia oceanica meadows off the Island of Ischia (Gulf of Naples, Italy): assessment of spatial and seasonal variability Valerio Zupo1*, Dorothea Stübing2 1Functional and Evolutionary Ecology Lab. Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. Punta San Pietro, Ischia. Italy; *Corresponding author: vzupo@szn.it 2Marine Zoology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Received 25 June 2010; revised 28 July 2010; accepted 5 August 2010. ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION The gut contents of fish in three Posidonia oce- The presence of seagrasses provides effective pro- anica meadows off the island of Ischia (Bay of tection against predation [1-3]; therefore it is accom- Naples, Italy) were investigated. A total of 926 panied by a great abundance of small invertebrates individual fish belonging to 28 species was [4-6]. In fact, the 3-dimensional complex structure sampled by bottom trawl in the leaf canopy. provided by seagrasses represents a clear advantage Labridae, Pomacentridae, Scorpaenidae, and for several invertebrates, as well as for young fish, that Serranidae were the best represented families find refuge from predation [7]. It has been demon- (41%, 38%, 8% and 6% of the total number of strated that the capture success of predators is gener- individuals, respectively). Of the 94 taxa de- ally higher over bare substrates than in seagrass tected in the gut contents, 42 were identified to meadow