Food habits in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, are poorly described despite the estuary's large size and importance as nursery and fisheries habitat. We conducted the first multi‐year, multispecies food habits study in Pamlico Sound, sampling the stomach contents of 16,913 predators representing 25 species. Predators were sampled from fisheries‐independent trawl and gill‐net surveys. We used multivariate analyses to compare diets between surveys, used agglomerative hierarchical cluster analyses and similarity profiles to identify significant trophic guilds, and identified forage fish using multiple approaches (qualitative classification criteria, connectance, and supportive role to fishery ecosystems [SURF]). The diets of predators sampled from the trawl survey were significantly different than predators sampled from the gill‐net survey. Mysids and anchovies were more important for trawl‐caught predators, with the majority of those predators belonging to nonpiscivorous guilds. Half of the gill‐net survey predators were piscivorous and relied more heavily on Atlantic Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus and sciaenids. Differences in the level of piscivory between the surveys are most likely a result of larger predators being sampled in gill nets relative to trawls. There was little agreement among approaches in forage species identification, and only anchovies in the trawl survey were identified as a forage species using all approaches. Quantitative metrics identified forage species (e.g., Spot Leiostomus xanthurus and invertebrates) that were not identified by qualitative classification criteria. Our work shows the effect of gear size selection on estimates of predator diets and the need to use a variety of gears that sample a wide range of predator sizes. Additionally, the identification of forage species requires an evaluation of criteria outside of life history characteristics and a greater emphasis on the contribution of a prey species to a predator's diet.

中文翻译：

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样本齿轮在大型泻湖河口营养种群和牧草种类识别中的重要性

尽管河口的面积很大，而且作为苗圃和渔业栖息地也很重要，但北卡罗来纳州帕姆利科桑德的饮食习惯却很少被描述。我们在帕姆利科桑德（Pamlico Sound）进行了首次多年多元饮食习惯研究，对代表25种动物的16,913捕食者的胃内容物取样。捕食者是从与渔业无关的拖网和刺网调查中取样的。我们使用多变量分析来比较调查之间的饮食，使用聚类层次聚类分析和相似性分析来识别重要的营养行会，并使用多种方法（定性分类标准，联系和对渔业生态系统的支持作用）来识别饲料鱼。从拖网调查中抽样的捕食者的饮食与从刺网调查中抽样的捕食者的饮食显着不同。s鱼和pre鱼对拖网捕食的捕食者更为重要，大多数捕食者属于非食肉性的行会。ill网调查的掠食者中有一半是食肉性的，并且更加依赖Atlantic Menhaden霸王龙和sciaenids。两次调查之间的食肉动物水平差异很可能是相对于拖网而言，更大的捕食者在刺网中取样的结果。牧草种类鉴定方法之间几乎没有共识，并且使用所有方法仅将拖网调查中的凤尾鱼鉴定为牧草种类。定量指标确定了牧草种类（例如，斑纹Leiostomus xanthurus和无脊椎动物）未通过定性分类标准识别。我们的工作显示了齿轮大小选择对捕食者饮食估计的影响，以及需要使用对各种捕食者大小进行采样的各种齿轮的需求。此外，识别牧草物种还需要评估生活史特征之外的标准，并更加强调猎物物种对掠食者饮食的贡献。