Ecology of Botany Bay. II. Aspects of the Feeding Ecology of the Fanbellied Leatherjacket, Monacanthus chinensis (Pisces : Monacanthidae), in Pisidonia australis Seagrass Beds in Quibray Bay, Botany Bay, New South Wales

1979 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 387 ◽  
Author(s):  
MJ Conacher ◽  
WJR Lanzing ◽  
AWD Larkum
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
Gut Contents ◽  
Seagrass Beds ◽  
Labile Carbon ◽  
Epiphytic Algae ◽  
Food Items ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Carbon Compounds ◽  
14C Labelling ◽  
Tide Height

The fanbellied leatherjacket, M. chinensis, was found to ingest fresh seagrass as a major part of its diet. Other important food items were gammarid amphipods, carid shrimps and several species of epiphytic algae. All food items were of seagrass bed origin. Microscopic examination of gut contents suggested that seagrass and algae did not appear to be digested by the fish, but 14C-labelling of the plants showed that significant amounts of the labile carbon compounds were removed and assimilated during digestion. The fanbellied leatherjacket was found to feed in the seagrass beds during the day, probably relying on eyesight for detecting food. Variations in tide height did not seem to affect their feeding pattern. The amounts of seagrass, algae, amphipods and shrimps removed by M. chinensis in Quibray Bay were calculated and compared with the availability of each of these foods. Grazing by M. chinensis had little effect on seagrass and algae production rates and standing crops, but probably had a significant influence on carid shrimp and amphipod populations.

Food of the Black Duck and Grey Teal in Coastal Northern New South Wales.

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 319 ◽  
Author(s):  
GN Goodrick
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Flood Plain ◽  
Gut Contents ◽  
Terrestrial Invertebrates ◽  
Food Items ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Water Beetle ◽  
Black Duck ◽  
Maize Grain

The study area of 500 km2 was humid and subtropical, on flood plain near Coraki, New South Wales. Gut contents were examined and the percentage by volume of different food items is tabulated for black duck (Anas superciliosa) and grey teal (A. gibberifrons). Black duck fed on flooded meadow-grass flats in autumn, moving when the flats dried to seasonal swamps, and when those also dried, to lagoons. Diet varied with place. Seeds of grasses, swamp plants and lagoon plants were eaten, with water snails and water beetle adults and larvae, water spiders and ostracods, and terrestrial invertebrates being eaten when the dry flats became flooded. They ate also waste maize grain from harvested fields before ploughing. Grey teal fed in the seasonal swamps in winter and then left the area almost completely; they ate almost the same items as black duck but fed by the muddy edges of seasonal swamps more than the black duck did. It was known that black duck strip seed from the growing plant and grey teal pick up the fallen seed.

Selenium bioaccumulation and biomagnification in Lake Wallace, New South Wales, Australia

2008 ◽  
Vol 59 (12) ◽  
pp. 1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Jasonsmith ◽  
W. Maher ◽  
A.C. Roach ◽  
F. Krikowa
Keyword(s):  
Rainbow Trout ◽  
New South ◽  
Benthic Algae ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Food Chains ◽  
Fish Liver ◽  
Epiphytic Algae ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Cooling Reservoir ◽  
Fish Spawning

Selenium concentrations were measured in water, sediments and organisms inhabiting a freshwater coal power station cooling reservoir. Se concentrations found were: water, 1.9 ± 2 μg L–1; sediment, 7 ± 1 μg g–1; phytoplankton, 3.4 μg g–1; zooplankton, 5.3 μg g–1; epiphytic algae, 1.3 ± 0.2 μg g–1; benthic algae, 8 ± 2 μg g–1; macrophyte leaves, 2.7–2.8 μg g–1; macrophyte roots, 0.5–6.5 μg g–1; detritus, 10 μg g–1; Oligochaeta, 11 μg g–1; Corbiculidae, 1.1 μg g–1; Insects, 3.7–8.3 μg g–1; Gastropoda, 3.2 μg g–1; Crustacea, 3.1–6 μg g–1; whole fish, 2.2–13 μg g–1; and fish liver, 134–314 μg g–1. Bioconcentration factors were similar to those found in aquatic ecosystems with comparable Se concentrations in the water column. A food web was constructed with four main food chains (phytoplankton, epiphytic algae, benthic algae and sediment/detrital), with fish fed from multiple pathways. Biomagnification only occurs along food chains for flathead gudgeons and rainbow trout. Se concentrations in food sources were above the 3 μg g–1 dietary Se level considered to induce teratogenesis in fish spawning. Flathead gudgeons were found to be suffering teratogenesis and rainbow trout showed no evidence of teratogenesis.

Natural diet of the tiger prawns Penaeus esculentus and P. semisulcatus

1987 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
TJ Wassenberg ◽  
BJ Hill
Keyword(s):  
Regional Differences ◽  
Benthic Fauna ◽  
Gut Contents ◽  
Frequency Of Occurrence ◽  
Seagrass Beds ◽  
Natural Diet ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Moreton Bay ◽  
Harpacticoid Copepods ◽  
Common Items

Foregut contents of 702 P. esculentus and 426 P. semisulcatus collected from seagrass and offshore habitats in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Torres Strait and Moreton Bay between December 1983 and March 1984 were analysed, and the numerical composition and frequency of occurrence of food items in the diet were compared statistically. Periodicity in feeding was examined in adult prawns collected in hourly 20-min trawls overnight. Gut contents from these prawns were weighed and corrected for size by an empirically derived relationship V = 0.00931l2.818 between gut volume (V, �l) and carapace length (I, mm). The guts of both species were partially filled with food throughout the night. Bivalves, gastropods, ophiuroids, crustaceans and polychaetes were the most abundant food items of both species. Dietary composition overlapped for both species caught in the same trawl, but significant differences (P<0.05) were found in average numbers of pariicuiar items. No significani differences (P > 0.05) in numerical composition or frequency of occurrence of dietary items were found between the sexes of either species. Bivalves, gastropods and crustaceans were the most common items in juvenile and adult P. semisulcatus. Bivalves and gastropods were the most common food items in juvenile and adult P. esculentus. Bivalves were more common in adult than in juvenile P. esculentus. Ophiuroids were found more frequently with larger size of P. esculentus but were constant in all sizes of P. semisulcatus. The only meiofauna found in either species in significant numbers were harpacticoid copepods and these were found mainly in prawns from seagrass beds. P. esculentus and P. semisulcatus appear to eat similar taxa of benthic fauna. Quantitative differences between the diets of both species of prawns captured in the same trawl suggest that they are selective in their diet. Strong regional differences in diet were probably due to differences in the availability of prey.

Ostracoda in Lake Illawarra: Environmental factors, assemblages and systematics.

1987 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 795 ◽  
Author(s):  
I Yassini ◽  
BG Jones
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Distribution Pattern ◽  
Water Depth ◽  
Intertidal Zone ◽  
New South ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Seagrass Beds ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Lake Illawarra ◽  
Ostracod Species

Major controls of the distribution pattern and abundance of living ostracod populations in Lake Illawarra, a coastal lagoon south of Wollongong, New South Wales, are salinity and the benthic flora. The biocenotic ostracod assemblage from the intertidal zone around Windang Island is a typical, diverse, upper sublittoral, open ocean fauna. The lake entrance channel, which is a transport corridor for marine sediments into the lagoon, has a restricted ostracod biocenose (14 species) but contains an additional 72 species in the diverse thanatocenose resulting from the mixing of estuarine and marine species. Within the lagoon, the benthic flora influences the ostracod distribution pattern with the most diverse assemblage (13 species) occurring in areas covered by seagrasses. Seagrass distribution is, in turn, controlled by water depth, circulation, turbidity and substrate. Estuarine ostracods associated with the seagrass beds can tolerate florally induced fluctuations in pH from 7 to 10 and in dissolved oxygen from 1 mg l-1 to 14 mg l-1. In the deeper parts of the lagoon with a predominantly mud substrate, the ostracod assemblage is dominated by Osticythere reticulata. Most samples retrieved from the most polluted part of the lagoon contained no ostracods. A total of 90 ostracod species and subspecies belonging to 50 genera has been identified; nine species: Cytheralison cosmetics, Callistocythere janiceburrowsae, Callistocythere windangensis, Neocytherideis anneclarkeae, Actinocythereis robustus, Bradleya rectangulata, Procythereis jonesi, Hemicytherura windangensis and Cytheropteron wrighti; and one subspecies, Callistocythere dorsotuberculata paucicostata, are described as new to science.

Diets of Scincid Lizards Lampropholis-Guichenoti (Dumeril and Bibron) and Lampropholis-Delicata (De Vis) in Mumbulla State Forest on the South Coast of New-South-Wales

1989 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 307 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Lunney ◽  
E Ashby ◽  
J Grigg ◽  
M Oconnell
Keyword(s):  
Foraging Ecology ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Coast ◽  
Gut Contents ◽  
Coastal Forests ◽  
The South ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Combined Impact

The diets of the two small scincid lizards Lampropholis guichenoti and L. delicata were examined by analysis of gut contents. The study was conducted in Mumbulla State Forest on the south coast of New South Wales. Gut samples were collected before an intense fire in November 1980, then again in December of 1980, 1981, 1983 and 1984. The study included a period of intense drought from 1980 to 1983. Both species were found to be generalist feeders taking a wide range of invertebrate taxa, mostly insects and spiders. The range of taxa taken as prey indicated that both species foraged over a variety of substrates and were flexible in their foraging behaviour. Both species had a similar diet, except during the drought years when there were significant differences in the proportions of some taxa eaten. That both species are common in the coastal forests near Bega and survived the combined impact of fire and drought can be attributed, at least in part, to the flexibility of their foraging ecology.

Feeding Ecology of a Scorpaenid Fish, the Fortescue Centropogon australis, from a Posidonia Seagrass Habitat in New South Wales

1978 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 175 ◽  
Author(s):  
JD Bell ◽  
JJ Burchmore ◽  
DA Pollard
Keyword(s):  
Fish Community ◽  
Alimentary Tract ◽  
Seagrass Meadow ◽  
New South ◽  
Stomach Contents ◽  
Average Density ◽  
Seagrass Habitat ◽  
Invertebrate Community ◽  
Food Items ◽  
South Wales

Examination of the stomach contents of 153 predominantly sub-adult (modal standard length c. 40 mm) fortescues, C. australis, collected from an estuarine Posidonia aulstralis seagrass meadow near Sydney showed that these fish were macrophagic carnivores. Crustaceans (mainly grapsid crabs and penaeid and carid shrimps) made up 90% of the diet by estimated volume; other major food types included polychaete worms and gastropod molluscs. Minor food items included seagrass, algae and foraminiferans. This predominantly crustacean diet was found to be generally similar to that of a number of other scorpaenid species. No obvious seasonal differences in diet were detected apart from slight changes in the composition of the crustacean component. The morphology of the alimentary tract of C. australis is of a typical carnivorous type. Fortescues were found to be relatively abundant in the Posidonia habitat, representing, on average, 11 .5 % of the fish community by numbers and occurring at an average density of 1 fish per 14 m2. Sub-adult fortescues appear to be highly dependent on the Posidonia habitat and its invertebrate community as a food source.

Feeding Ecology of Three Sympatric Species of Leatherjackets (Pisces : Monacanthidae) from a Posidonia Seagrass Habitat in New South Wales

1978 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 631 ◽  
Author(s):  
JD Bell ◽  
JJ Burchmore ◽  
DA Pollard
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Ecology ◽  
Fish Community ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Seagrass Habitat ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Epiphytic Algae ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Animal Material

Three species of leatherjackets, Monacanthus chinensis, Meuschenia freycineti and Meuschenia trachylepis, averaged 34% of the total biomass and 27% of the total numbers of fishes in a Posidonia australis seagrass habitat near Sydney. Monacanthus chinensis was dominant, comprising 22% of the total biomass and 18% of the total numbers in this fish community. All three species were omnivorous, consuming considerable amounts of seagrass and algae as well as animal material. However, only the encrusting fauna and epiphytic algae of the seagrass appeared to be actually digested. Other foods of all three species included hydroids, molluscs, crustaceans and polychaetes. Meuschenia freycineti consumed the largest quantities (65%) of seagrass, Monacanthus chinensis consumed the largest amount (40%) and greatest variety of animal foods, and Meuschenia trachylepis took the smallest quantity (12%) and number of animal foods and the greatest amount (55 %) of algae. All three species were found to be highly dependent on the encrusting fauna, epi- phytic algae and other epifauna and infauna of this seagrass habitat, and the importance of preserving Posidonia beds is therefore stressed.

Observations on the Diets of the Long-Tailed Mouse, Pseudomys higginsi, and the Velvet-furred Rat, Rattus lutreolus velutinus, in Southern Tasmania.

1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
M.M. Driessen
Keyword(s):  
Food Availability ◽  
Resource Partitioning ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Faecal Analysis ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Sclerophyll Forest ◽  
Study Support ◽  
The Difference

Diets of two sympatric murids, Pseudomys higginsi and Rattus lutreolus were studied by faecal analysis during spring and summer in wet sclerophyll forest and sub-alpine woodland on Mount Wellington, Tasmania. Both species were omnivorous but their overall diet differed with Pseudomys higginsi consuming a broader range of food items than Rattus lutreolus. P. higginsi diet tended to reflect the difference in food availability between locations and between seasons. Main items in the diet of P. higginsi at both locations were fruits, monocotyledons (mostly grasses), mosses, fungi and invertebrates. Proportions of fruits and mosses in the diet differed between locations. Mosses and ferns were most common in the diet during spring whereas monocotyledons and some dicotyledons were more common during summer. R. lutreolus diet showed little variation between locations and seasons. Main items in the diet of R. lutreolus were monocotyledons (sedges and grasses), fungi and invertebrates. The importance of mosses and fungi as dietary items are discussed. The results of this study support a developing view of resource partitioning between sympatric Rattus and Pseudomys populations in Tasmania and New South Wales.

The Stomach Contents of Foxes, Vulpes Vulpes, Collected in New South Wales.

1978 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 85 ◽  
Author(s):  
JD Croft ◽  
LJ Hone
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Domestic Fowl ◽  
Vulpes Vulpes ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Stomach Contents ◽  
The Road ◽  
Food Items ◽  
South Wales ◽  
On The Road

Foxes were killed in each of 4 seasons in the 5 years 1969-73 and a table gives numbers of stomachs with food for each year and season in each of 6 regions into which New South Wales was divided according to climate, vegetation and land use. Incidence of 11 food items or classes of food varied with region. An appendix lists precentage and volume of food items for the 811 foxes with food, out of the 899 that were killed. Main foods were rabbit, sheep and house mouse, by number and volume. The number of plant and insect items was high but the volume was low. Food included reptiles, amphibians, fish, grass and fruit. Foxes seemed to be opportunists and scavengers; food included feral pig and kangaroo when those were being shot locally, sheep carrion in the lambing season, mice during a plague of mice, domestic fowl, birds and animals probably killed on the road, and blackberries and apples in season. Insects included maggots, locusts and processionary caterpillars.

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