Especialização individual em três espécies de peixes em um rio intermitente do semiárido brasileiro

Abstract

In the Neotropical zone the generalist habit is common among fish populations, especially in semi-arid rivers. In these systems, where the availability of food items varies spatially and temporally, it is expected that a more generalist strategy dominates. However, populations classified as generalist may actually be composed of relatively specialist individuals. This study aims at quantifying the use of food resources and understanding the individual contribution to population niche of Hoplias malabaricus, Geophagus brasiliensis and Prochilodus brevis. Four collections were performed at four sites along the Ipanema (PE) River, in April and July 2007 (wet season) and October 2007 and January 2008 (dry season). Sampling was performed at daylight, using gillnets, manual trawls and cast nets. The specimens collected were fixed in 4% formalin and preserved in 70% ethanol. The diet was quantified using the indirect volumetric method, frequency of occurrence and numeric frequency. Spatial patterns of variation in food items between species were evaluated using the Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS). The Multi-Response Permutation Procedure (MRPP) was used to test the significance of differences in diet composition between species, sites and sampling periods. The degree of specialization of each individual was calculated using a proportional similarity index. The amplitude and niche overlap ratios were calculated using the Levins and Bolnick indexes. The graphical analysis of Amundsen was performed in order to correlate the diet composition with the selection of specific prey. The species showed a pattern of distribution and segregation in diet between the sampling sites. The MRPP showed that there were significant differences in the diet composition between species (MRPP, A= 0, 61; p= 0, 00). Geophagus brasiliensis specie showed significant differences between site 1 and site 4 (MRPP, A = 0.14; p = 0.03) and site 2 and site 4 (MRPP, A = 0.16 p = 0, 03), the Prochilodus brevis specie between site 1 and site 3 (MRPP, A = 0.28 p = 0.02) and site 1 and site 4 (MRPP, A = 0.11; p = 0.04). The three species present individual specialization in all sampling sites and in both periods of the hydrological cycle. The species Hoplias malabaricus has a population with most experts individuals, with rest of fish as the dominant item, however, with other individuals in the population consuming a high abundance of specific prey. However Geophagus brasiliensis presented a generalist population, with individuals of the population consuming a variety of items, displaying a relatively high component within phenotype. Prochilodus brevis showed a population with varied feeding strategy, presenting degrees of specialization with the contribution of Cyclotela item and generalization, where food items were consumed by more than half of the population. It was observed that individual specialization is highly correlated with niche overlap, indicating that the smaller the overlap the larger the degree of individual specialization. It is important to emphasize that the greatest degree of individual specialization was observed where there was a greater availability of food resources consumed by the populations.