Trophic relationships of a subtidal fish assemblage in the Francisco Coloane Coastal Marine Protected Area, southern Chilean Patagonia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Study area in the Chilean southern Patagonia. Shown in the inset is the Francisco Coloane CMPA and study sites where Champsocephalus esox, Patagonotothen tessellata, P. cornucola and Oncorhynchus tschawytscha were collected (Table 1) in April 2016 from Caleta Dighton, connected to the Strait of Magellan by the Barbara Channel.

Table 1. Fishes sampled from Caleta Dighton, in the Barbara Channel, Francisco Coloane CMPA in Chile’s southern Patagonia (Fig. 1) for stomach content and stable-isotope analysis: total number of fishes sampled per species, size range, mean δ¹⁵N–δ¹³C, TL and SEAc.

Species	Habitat	n	Size range (cm)	δ^15N	δ^13C	TL	SEAc
C. esox (pike icefish)	Benthopelagic	12	28–34	15.3 ± 0.3	−16.0 ± 0.4	3.02	0.38
P. tessellata (rockcod)	Benthic	3	18.5–20	13.9 ± 0.3	−14.7 ± 0.5	2.61	0.82
P. cornucola (rockcod)	Benthic	10	19 – 26.5	13.9 ± 0.4	−15.4 ± 0.7	2.61	0.79
O. tshawytscha (chinook salmon)	Benthopelagic	3	31.5–62	14.9 ± 0.4	−16.2 ± 0.6	2.91	0.98

Figure 2. Dendrogram based on δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values from a subtidal fish assemblage from Caleta Dighton (Barbara Channel; Fig.1) in the Francisco Coloane CMPA, Chile´s southern Patagonia. Numbers in parentheses are the estimated TL.

Figure 3. Standard ellipse area (solid lines) depicting trophic niche breadth and overlap based on SEAc analysis for Champsocephalus esox, Patagonotothen tessellata, P. cornucola and Oncorhynchus tschawytscha sampled from Caleta Dighton (Barbara Channel) in the Francisco Coloane CMPA, Chile’s southern Patagonia (Fig.1).