Dietary overlap and selectivity among mountain steppe river fish in the United States and Mongolia
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Issue Date
2023-05-21Author
Minder, Mario
Arsenault, Emily R.
Pyron, Mark
Otgonganbat, Amarbat
Mendsaikhan, Bud
Publisher
Wiley Open Access
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Rights
© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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Show full item recordAbstract
Lotic systems in mountain regions have historically provided secure habitat for native fish populations because of their relative isolation from human settlement and lack of upstream disturbances. However, rivers of mountain ecoregions are currently experiencing heightened levels of disturbance due to the introduction of nonnative species impacting endemic fishes in these areas. We compared the fish assemblages and diets of mountain steppe fishes of the stocked rivers in Wyoming with rivers in northern Mongolia where stocking is absent. Using gut content analysis, we quantified the selectivity and diets of fishes collected in these systems. Nonnative species had more generalist diets with lower levels of selectivity than most native species and native species had high levels of dietary specificity and selectivity. High abundances of nonnative species and high levels of dietary overlaps in our Wyoming sites is a cause of concern for native Cutthroat Trout and overall system stability. In contrast, fish assemblages characterizing Mongolia mountain steppe rivers were composed of only native species with diverse diets and higher selectivity values, suggesting low probability for interspecific competition.
Citation
Minder, M., Arsenault, E. R., Pyron, M., Otgonganbat, A., & Mendsaikhan, B. (2023). Dietary overlap and selectivity among mountain steppe river fish in the United States and Mongolia. Ecology and Evolution, 13, e10132. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10132
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