Ecologia trófica de duas espécies de robalo (Centropomus undecimalis (Bloch, 1792) e Centropomus parallelus (Poey, 1860)) em quatro estuários tropicais, nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Stable isotopes analysis of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) was used to access the trophic ecology and resource use of two economically important estuarine fishes, the common (Centropomus undecimalis) and fat snook (Centropomus parallelus) at four tropical estuaries, northeast Brazil. Factors like studied location and season were analysed to verify potential influences on these process. Results of δ13C and δ15N shows that snooks exhibits a dynamic resource use across studied locations, with stronger resource partitioning at smaller systems. Overall, fishes were classified between the second and third trophic position and rely on a mixture of available sources which varies according to estuary. Seasonality also showed to be an important factor for species trophic ecology, with greater overlaps in the isotopic niche and boarder use of resources available. Our findings suggests that the two sympatric snooks share, at least in part, the same resources. However, it is unlikely that this represents a limiting factor for the stock, since snooks present an opportunistic behaviour among estuaries and seasons. Further, our results highlights the importance of seasonality to snook’s trophic ecology by providing similar and more abundant resources at the rainy season. This work provide new and insightful information about the influence of estuary’s typology on the interaction of two high-value predators.