Publication Date:
2021-07-04
Description:
The natural diet of 506 American lobsters (Homarus americanus) ranging from instar V (4 mm cephalothorax length, CL) to the adult stage (112 mm CL) was determined by stomach content analysis for a site in the Magdalen Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence, eastern Canada. Cluster and factor analyses determined four size groupings of lobsters based on their diet: 〈7.5 mm, 7.5 to 〈22.5 mm, 22.5 to 〈62.5 mm, and ≥62.5 mm CL. The ontogenetic shift in diet with increasing size of lobsters was especially apparent for the three dominant food items: the contribution of bivalves and animal tissue (flesh) to volume of stomach contents decreased from the smallest lobsters (28% and 39%, respectively) to the largest lobsters (2% and 11%, respectively), whereas the reverse trend was seen for rock crab Cancer irroratus (7% in smallest lobsters to 53% in largest lobsters). Large lobsters also ate larger rock crabs than did small lobsters.
Keywords:
Biology
;
Ecology
;
Fisheries
Repository Name:
AquaDocs
Type:
article
,
TRUE
Format:
application/pdf
Format:
application/pdf
Format:
106-116
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