Habitat utilization and feeding ecology of small round goby in a shallow brackish lagoon
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Habitat utilization and feeding ecology of small round goby in a shallow brackish lagoon Christina Henseler 1,2
&
Paul Kotterba 2 & Erik Bonsdorff 1 & Marie C. Nordström 1 & Daniel Oesterwind 2
Received: 30 January 2020 / Revised: 1 July 2020 / Accepted: 13 July 2020 / Published online: 21 September 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract We examined small-scale distribution and feeding ecology of a non-native fish species, round goby (Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1814)), in different habitats of a coastal lagoon situated in the south-western Baltic Sea. First observations of round goby in this lagoon were reported in 2011, 3 years before the current study was conducted, and information on this species’ basic ecology in different habitats is limited. We found that mainly juvenile round gobies are non-randomly distributed between habitats and that abundances potentially correlate positively with vegetation density and thus structural complexity of the environment. Abundances were highest in shallower, more densely vegetated habitats indicating that these areas might act as a refuge for small round gobies by possibly offering decreased predation risk and better feeding resources. Round goby diet composition was distinct for several length classes suggesting an ontogenetic diet shift concerning crustacean prey taxa between small (≤ 50 mm total length, feeding mainly on zooplankton) and medium individuals (51–100 mm, feeding mainly on benthic crustaceans) and another diet shift of increasing molluscivory with increasing body size across all length classes. Differences in round goby diet between habitats within the smallest length class might potentially be related to prey availability in the environment, which would point to an opportunistic feeding strategy. Here, we offer new insights into the basic ecology of round goby in littoral habitats, providing a better understanding of the ecological role of this invasive species in its non-native range, which might help to assess potential consequences for native fauna and ecosystems. Keywords Baltic Sea . Biological invasion . Diet . Habitat types . Neogobius melanostomus
Introduction The round goby (Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1814)) originates from the Ponto-Caspian region and has colonized multiple water bodies as a non-native fish species, including the Great Lakes, the Baltic Sea and several European rivers like the Rhine. Thus, it occurs in various temperate freshwater Communicated by C. Buschbaum Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-020-01098-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Christina Henseler [email protected] 1
Environmental and Marine Biology, Åbo Akademi University, Artillerigatan 6, Biocity, 20520 Åbo, Finland
2
Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries, Alter Hafen Süd 2, 18069 Rostock, Germany
and brackish water systems and has become a dominant fish species in many of these invaded regions (Sapota and Skóra 2005; Korn
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