Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 May 3;5(5):e10453.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010453.

Feeding ecology of Coryphaenoides rupestris from the mid-Atlantic Ridge

Odd Aksel Bergstad  1 , Guro Gjelsvik, Christoffer Schander, Age S Høines
Affiliations

Feeding ecology of Coryphaenoides rupestris from the mid-Atlantic Ridge

Odd Aksel Bergstad et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The Macrourid fish roundnose grenadier, Coryphaenoides rupestris, is one of the most common benthopelagic fishes on the northern mid-Atlantic Ridge. The ecology of the species is comparatively well studied in continental slope waters of the North Atlantic, but not on the mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is a central mid-ocean area of its distribution. In total, 166 specimens from the RV G.O. Sars cruise in July 2004 were examined. The diet mainly comprised cephalopods, pelagic shrimps and fish. Pelagic and benthopelagic copepods were the most numerous prey, but did not contribute much on a weight basis. Cephalopods were by far the most important prey of the small grenadiers, while shrimps and fish became increasingly significant with increasing size. Previous studies from other areas have also found pelagic prey to be important, but in contrast to this study, cephalopods were generally of less importance. The study was an element of more wide-ranging food-web studies of the mid-Atlantic Ridge macro- and megafauna communities within the international MAR-ECO project.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Bottom trawl sampling locations on the 2004 expedition on RV G.O. Sars.
Filled squares: locations with catches of C. rupestris, among which the black squares denote locations where diet samples were collected. Open squares: locations with no catch of C. rupestris.
Figure 2
Figure 2. The taxonomical composition of the stomach contents of C. rupestris in terms of weight (upper) and numbers (lower).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Composition of stomach contents in terms of weight of different length groups of C. rupestris.
Figure 4
Figure 4. The number of prey categories per stomach for different size classes of C. rupestris.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Prey composition at three different locations on the mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Length compositions of copepods found in stomach contents of the four predator length groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Garrison T. Oceanography: An invitation to Marine Science. Wadsworth, Pacific grove: 2002. 554
    1. Bergstad OA, Godø OR. The pilot project “Patterns and processes of the ecosystems of the northern Mid-Atlantic”: aims, strategy and status. Oceanologica Acta. 2003;25:219–226.
    1. Geistdorfer P. Whitehead PJP, Bauchot M-L, Hureau J-C, Nielsen J, editors. Macrouridae. Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, vol I-III. 1986. pp. 644–676. Unesco, Paris.
    1. Haedrich RL, Merrett NR. Summary atlas of demersal fishes in the North Atlantic Basin. Journal of Natural History. 1988;22:1325–1362.
    1. Bergstad OA, Menezes G, Høines ÅS. Demersal fish on a mid-ocean ridge: Distribution patterns and structuring factors. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. 2008;55(1–2):185–202.

Publication types