Impacts of river fragmentation on limiting individual dietary specialization of Amazonian predatory fish

Abstract

Individual dietary specialization is one of the factors that promotes variation in resource use at the individual level. Here we used stable isotope analysis of multiple tissues with different turnover rates to examine the degree of individual specialization in two sub-populations of the predator Cichla temensis inhabiting both fragmented and undammed rivers within the Uatumã River basin of the Amazon. Our results showed that the undammed river provides better conditions to promote individual dietary specialization than the fragmented river. This study contributes to the understanding of how specific life history characteristics of populations of generalist predators are impacted by fragmentation within megadiverse environments such as the Amazon basin.

Keywords

• Intrapopulation niche
• Individual niche
• Trophic niche
• Peacock bass
• Cichla temensis
• Habitat fragmentation