Document Type
Article
Publication Title
PLoS ONE
Abstract
Understanding the complex nature of direct and indirect species interactions is a critical precursor to successful resource management. In the northern Gulf of Mexico fisheries ecosystem, red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) and vermilion snapper (Rhomboplites aurorubens) are two commercially harvested species within a larger reef fish complex. These two species share similar habitats and diets; however, little is known about how these species partition habitat and dietary resources. In this study we examined the extent of spatial and dietary overlap between red snapper and vermilion snapper, and experimentally compared their feeding behavior. Field data from multiple gear types demonstrates that red snapper and vermilion snapper frequently cohabited reefs in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and Pianka’s niche overlap indices suggest significantly overlapping diets. Experimental manipulations show that red snapper are the dominant forager of the two species, as red snapper foraging alone ate more shrimp per fish than vermilion snapper in both the single species (p = 0.003) and mixed species (p = 0.02) treatments. In addition, red snapper ate significantly more shrimp per fish in the mixed species treatment than in the single species treatment (p = 0.04). Vermilion snapper shrimp consumption per fish did not differ significantly between mixed and single species treatments. Cumulatively, our results suggest that spatial and dietary overlap could lead to competition between red and vermilion snapper in the study area; however, conclusively determining the existence of such competition would require further research.
First Page
1
Last Page
16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144051
Publication Date
12-2-2015
Department
Marine and Environmental Sciences
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Publisher required citation: Davis WT, Drymon JM, Powers SP (2015)Spatial and Dietary Overlap Creates Potential for Competition between Red Snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) and Vermilion snapper (Rhomboplites aurorubens). PLoS ONE 10(12): e0144051. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144051
Included in
Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Marine Biology Commons
Comments
Must use original publisher's citation to cite this work.
Copyright: © 2015 Davis et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability Statement: These data are now archived at the NOAA NCEI. The URL for these data through that repository is http://accession.nodc.noaa. gov/0130920.
Funding: This work was funded through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Marine Fisheries Initiative (MARFIN) program (grant number NOAA-NMFS-SE2010-2001772) to SPP. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.