Diet richness of invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish revealed by DNA barcoding

Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois spp. have recently invaded marine habitats throughout the western Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Their unusual hunting behaviour suggests that they could prey on most fish species within their gape size limits. However, few prey species have been identifie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine ecology. Progress series (Halstenbek) 2013-01, Vol.472, p.249-256
Main Authors: Côté, Isabelle M., Green, Stephanie J., Morris, James A., Akins, John L., Steinke, Dirk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AAcero P
AndrewHines
ArturoAcero
bahamas
Barcoding
Biological Sciences
Biologiska vetenskaper
coast
consequences
coral-reef fishes
Diet composition
extinction
forest
identification
insights
Invasion biology
Lionfish
OGRESS SERIESnu
OGRESS SERIESnullBetancur-R
Predator-prey interactions
pterois-volitans
RHines
RicardoBetancur-R
snake
Stomach content
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Summary:Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois spp. have recently invaded marine habitats throughout the western Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Their unusual hunting behaviour suggests that they could prey on most fish species within their gape size limits. However, few prey species have been identified so far due to the challenges of identifying partly digested prey. Moreover, it is not clear how well the identifiable diet reflects the unidentified portion. To address these issues, we DNA-barcoded unidentifiable fish items from the stomachs of 130 lionfish captured on Bahamian coral reefs. We identified 37 fish prey species, nearly half of which had not previously been recorded in this region. The total richness of lionfish prey fish recorded so far may represent up to ~54% of potential prey species on the study reefs. The relative importance of prey species in the visually identifiable diet portion, which was limited to 25% of prey items, differed from that in the ‘unidentifiable’ portion, which was largely resolved here with barcoding, weakening extrapolations from visual identification. The high diet resolution afforded by barcoding can increase our ability to predict the impacts of invasive predators on recipient communities.
ISSN:0171-8630
1616-1599
DOI:10.3354/meps09992