Diet seasonality and food overlap of the fish assemblage in a pantanal pond

Abstract

We assessed the trophic structure of the fish fauna in Sinhá Mariana pond, Mato Grosso State, from March 2000 to February 2001. The aim was to determine the feeding patterns of the fish species during the rainy and dry seasons. The diets of 26 species (1,294 stomach contents) were determined by the volumetric method. Insects and fish were the most important food resources: insects were the dominant food of 23% and 27% of the species, respectively, in the rainy and dry season, and fish was the dominant item for 31% of the species in both seasons. Cluster analysis (Euclidean Distance) identified seven trophic guilds in the rainy season (detritivores, herbivores, insectivores, lepidophages, omnivores, piscivores and planktivores), and five trophic guilds in the dry season (detritivores, insectivores, lepidophages, omnivores and piscivores). The smallest mean values of diet breadth were observed for the specialist guilds (detritivores, lepidophages and piscivores), in both seasons. The widest means for diet breadth were observed for the omnivores, regardless of the season. In general, there was no seasonal variation in feeding overlap among the species studied. At the community level, diet overlap values between species were low (< 0.4) for 80% of the pairs in each season, suggesting wide partitioning of the food resource. The fish assemblage showed a tendency toward trophic specialization, regardless of the season, although several species changed their diets. We might consider two non-excludent hypothesis: that there is no pattern on the use of seasonal food resources and/or probably there are several patterns, because each one is based on characteristics of the studied site and the taxonomic composition of the resident species.