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Investigating the trophic ecology of freshwater fish communities from central and eastern Indian streams using stable isotope analysis

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Abstract

Stable isotope analysis (SIA) has been used over the last decade to decipher trophic relationships between organisms, especially in freshwater and marine systems. Using SIA to understand food web patterns in stream communities, we present a first time investigation on trophic structure of fish communities from two ecoregions in eastern and central India. This study is based on pooled pre-monsoon samples from each region, which were analyzed for their isotopic carbon and nitrogen. Fish dietary data from secondary literature and available databases based on their known gut content analysis were included for calculating average food web lengths. Despite being located within the tropics and therefore from similar ecological and climatic conditions, subtle differences were observed in the food web shape and food web lengths of fish communities from the two regions. Food web length was longer in central Indian streams compared to eastern Indian streams. Higher trophic diversity and lower trophic redundancy among fishes of central India were indicative of specialized feeding. On the other hand, a greater utilization of diverse basal resources indicated feeding niche overlap and greater omnivory among fishes in eastern India. Benthopelagic fishes were found to be the largest guild and occupied the largest area as well as maximum carbon and nitrogen ranges. In addition to providing an understanding of the trophic patterns in tropical stream ecosystems, our work serves as a baseline for future studies on trophic structure in Indian stream fish communities.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Dr. Prasanta Sanyal and SILIKA lab in IISER Kolkata for mass spectrometry facilities. They also thank Prasenjit Pan and local fishermen for help with sampling fish and collecting data from study sites.

Funding

The authors wish to thank the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata (IISER-Kolkata, India) and Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India, for financial support during this study to AB. RM was supported through research fellowships provided by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India (CSIR India).

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur, West Bengal, India

    Rubina Mondal & Anuradha Bhat

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  1. Rubina Mondal
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  2. Anuradha Bhat
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The study was conceptualized and designed by AB and RM. Field work, sample collection, preparation and analysis were performed by RM. Manuscript was written by RM and AB.

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Correspondence to Anuradha Bhat.

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The study complies with the existing rules and guidelines outlined by the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), Government of India. The study also adheres to the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee's (IAEC) rules and guidelines of IISER Kolkata. Tissue samples from fish species, molluscs, invertebrates and plankton were collected following guidelines in the CPCSEA, Government of India.

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Mondal, R., Bhat, A. Investigating the trophic ecology of freshwater fish communities from central and eastern Indian streams using stable isotope analysis. COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 22, 203–215 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42974-021-00049-4

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