Coastal storm risks have been increasing over the last couple of decades, affecting both marine infrastructure and human security. Nevertheless, the ecological impact on intertidal marine fishes has not been addressed yet. We carried out a field experiment during austral summer 2018, using statistical wave parameters, characterizing coastal storms as a factor, and the gut content of two sympatric intertidal triplefins, Helcogrammoides chilensis and Helcogrammoides cunninghami, as a proxy for trophic interactions. Three locations were sampled before and after the arrival of three consecutive summer coastal storm events. From all gut contents, a total of 16,597 prey items were found. Both species are micro-carnivorous, predating mostly on harpacticoid copepods, amphipods and chironomid larvae, without significant differences in prey composition with the passing of the summer coastal storms. However, after coastal storms, heavier-at-length fish (0.05–0.5 g weight gain) were found in the intertidal. Indeed, after the impact of the coastal storms, H. chilensis increased their ingestion of larger prey (amphipods, chironomid larvae), while H. cunninghami decreased the number of prey ingested. When compared between species, the feeding success after the passing of coastal storms was greater for H. chilensis than H. cunninghami. Finally, trophic overlap between species was high, but after the coastal storms passed, it decreased noticeably due to small changes in proportion of large chironomid and gammarid amphipods in the diet. Therefore, summer coastal storms affected the foraging behavior, increasing the weight of two recurrent cryptobenthic rocky reef fish from central Chile. In a broader ecological context, the shift from pelagic (i.e., copepods) to benthic prey (i.e., amphipods, polychaetes) may change the relative contribution and the subsidy production in nearshore habitats via pelagic-benthic coupling.

在过去的几十年中，沿海风暴风险一直在增加，影响到海洋基础设施和人类安全。然而，对潮间带海水鱼类的生态影响尚未得到解决。我们在2018年夏季的南方进行了一次野外实验，使用统计波参数，将沿海风暴定性为一个因素，以及两个同温带潮间三足鳍（Helicogrammoides chilensis和Helcogrammoides cunninghami）的肠道含量，作为营养互动的代理。在连续三个夏季沿海风暴事件发生之前和之后，对三个地点进行了采样。从所有肠内物品中，共发现了16597个猎物。这两个物种都是微食肉动物，主要捕食类立足类co足类，两栖动物和尺虫幼虫，随着夏季沿海风暴的通过，猎物组成没有显着差异。但是，在沿海风暴过后，潮间带发现了重一些的鱼（体重增加0.05-0.5 g）。确实，在沿海风暴的影响下，智利小球藻增加了对较大猎物（两栖类，小龙虾幼虫）的摄入，而坎宁哈米减少了被摄食的猎物数量。当物种之间的比较，沿海风暴通过后饲养成功是更大的H. chilensis的比H. cunninghami。最后，物种之间的营养重叠率很高，但是在沿海风暴过后，由于饮食中大型手足类和γ-线虫两栖动物的比例发生微小变化，这种重叠明显减少。因此，夏季沿海风暴影响了觅食行为，增加了智利中部的两种经常性隐栖岩石礁鱼的重量。在更广泛的生态环境中，从远洋（即co足类）向底栖猎物（即两栖类，多足动物）的转变可能会通过远洋-底栖耦合改变近岸生境的相对贡献和补贴生产。