New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

---

Diet composition and guild structure of mesopelagic and bathypelagic fishes near Macquarie Island, Australia

A. C. GASKETT^*
C. BULMAN⁺
X. HE
S. D. GOLDSWORTHY

CSIRO Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
Hobart, Tas 7001
Australia
email (Bulman):Cathy.Bulman@marine.csiro.au

^*Present address: Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic 3052, Australia.

Abstract  Mesopelagic (200-1000 m) and bathypelagic (>1000 m) fish near Macquarie Island, Australia, are important in the diets of seals, seabirds, and Patagonian toothfish. They also form important links between the productivity at shallow and deeper water depths. Here we analyse the diets of 23 fish species, 13 of which are from the family Myctophidae from 254 stomach samples. Crustaceans (particularly copepods, amphipods, and euphausiids) were the dominant prey in 18 species. Fishes were the dominant prey in five species. Further analysis showed that five of the 13 myctophid fishes had a low level of similarity in diet composition between individuals of each species, whereas the other eight species had significantly high levels of similarity. Cluster analysis and randomisation procedures suggested the existence of five trophic guilds among the Myctophidae.

Keywords  Macquarie Island; feeding ecology; diet; guild structure; Myctophidae; mesopelagic; bathypelagic; cluster analysis

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2001, Vol. 35: 469-476

0028-8330/01/3503-0469 $7.00 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 2001

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (532K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

---

This year's abstracts | Journal home page | All abstracts | Publishing home page