ArticleBMC biology2014
Diet disparity among sympatric herbivorous cichlids in the same ecomorphs in Lake Tanganyika: amplicon pyrosequences on algal farms and stomach contents.
Article in BMC biology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- DNA metabarcoding of spider egg sacs uncovers novel insights into host parasitoid complexes and trophic networks.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Morphological diversity of the genus Telmatochromis from the Lake Tanganyika drainage with the description of a new riverine species and the generic reassignment of the Malagarasi River lamprologine.Journal of fish biology · 2025Article
- Wasteful carotenoid coloration and its effects on territorial behavior in a cichlid fish.Hydrobiologia · 2021Article
- A role for gut microbiota in host niche differentiation.The ISME journal · 2020Article
- Ecological and Ontogenetic Components of Larval Lake Sturgeon Gut Microbiota Assembly, Successional Dynamics, and Ecological Evaluation of Neutral Community Processes.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2020Article
- Evidence for host effect on the intestinal microbiota of whitefish (Ecology and evolution · 2019Article
- Consumption of benthic cyanobacterial mats on a Caribbean coral reef.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Holobionts and ecological speciation: the intestinal microbiota of lake whitefish species pairs.Microbiome · 2018Article
- DNA metabarcoding of spiders, insects, and springtails for exploring potential linkage between above- and below-ground food webs.Zoological letters · 2018Article
- Convergence of gut microbiotas in the adaptive radiations of African cichlid fishes.The ISME journal · 2017Article
- Depth and substratum differentiations among coexisting herbivorous cichlids in Lake Tanganyika.Royal Society open science · 2016Article
- Isolation Driven Divergence in Osmoregulation in Galaxias maculatus (Jenyns, 1848) (Actinopterygii: Osmeriformes).PloS one · 2016Article
- Form, function and phylogeny: comparative morphometrics of Lake Tanganyika's cichlid tribe Tropheini.Zoologica scripta · 2015Article
- Depth segregation and diet disparity revealed by stable isotope analyses in sympatric herbivorous cichlids in Lake Tanganyika.Zoological letters · 2015Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLake Tanganyika, an ancient lake in the Great Rift Valley, is famous for the adaptive radiation of cichlids. Five tribes of the Cichlidae family have acquired herbivory, with five ecomorphs: grazers, browsers, scrapers, biters and scoopers. Sixteen species of the herbivorous cichlids coexist on a rocky littoral slope in the lake. Seven of them individually defend feeding territories against intruding herbivores to establish algal farms. We collected epiphyton from these territories at various depths and also gathered fish specimens. Algal and cyanobacteria community structures were analysed using the amplicon-metagenomic method.
resultsBased on 454-pyrosequencing of SSU rRNA gene sequences, we identified 300 phototrophic taxa, including 197 cyanobacteria, 57 bacillariophytes, and 31 chlorophytes. Algal farms differed significantly in their composition among cichlid species, even in the same ecomorph, due in part to their habitat-depth segregation. The algal species composition of the stomach contents and algal farms of each species differed, suggesting that cichlids selectively harvest their farms. The stomach contents were highly diverse, even between species in the same tribe, in the same feeding ecomorph.
conclusionsIn this study, the amplicon-metagenomic approach revealed food niche separation based on habitat-depth segregation among coexisting herbivorous cichlids in the same ecomorphs in Lake Tanganyika.
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