Browsing by Author "Gomes, Ana Rita Vieira de Carvalho"
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- The diet and the feeding habits of Lagocephalus sceleratus in the Eastern MediterraneanPublication . Gomes, Ana Rita Vieira de Carvalho; Erzini, Karim; Tserpes, GeorgeThis study focused on the diet and feeding habits of the invasive species Lagocephalus sceleratus off the coast of Crete (southeast Mediterranean). We found a low number of specimens with totally empty tracts. Its diet is composed of a wide range of organisms, but mainly fish and complemented by crustaceans and molluscs (mostly gastropods and cephalopods). Spatiotemporal differences were identified. Based on frequency of occurrence and weight contribution, there seems to be some variability in the general diet of L. sceleratus amongst season, region, fishery type, maturity stage and sex. The employment of generalised additive models suggested that depth at which the specimens were captured, season, region, total length and feeding intensity are significant predictors for the occurrence of its most frequent prey. Fish occurrence was more probable in autumn and summer and at circa 20-25 m deep. In contrast, that of crustaceans was higher in spring and winter and in mid-sized specimens and low at around 20-25 m deep whilst increasing until a maximum at 40 m. Non-cephalopod molluscs probability was highest in winter, in the Libyan Sea and increased from the minimum at 20-25 m to a maximum at 40 m as well. TL influenced the likelihood of algae and seagrass and cephalopod consumption, which increases as the fish grow. As for feeding intensity (FI), it shows a different effect on each group, but overall seems to have a positive effect on probability of occurrence.