Labropoulou et al : Habitat selection and diet of juvenile Pagrus pagrus 



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study almost certainly reflects aggregations of larger 

 individuals on hard bottoms that were not trawlable. 

 The maximum abundance of juveniles at 20-50 m could 

 be related to the major availability of food resources at 

 this depth range. Because nearshore areas typically 

 contain a greater abundance of food (e.g. Hawkins et 

 al. 1985; Swain, 1993) and a lower incidence of teleost 

 predators (Werner and Gilliam, 1984; L' Abee-Lund et 

 al., 1993; Ruiz et al., 1993), aggregations of young red 

 porgy into shallow zone will result in an increase rate 

 of growth and a lower mortality of these juveniles. 



The composition of food suggests that the red porgy 

 is a carnivorous species that relies on epibenthic in- 

 vertebrates, mainly decapods. Despite the large num- 

 ber of taxa found in stomach contents, few species 

 accounted for most of the prey consumed. The fact 

 that the mean number of prey items per stomach was 

 small (there was also a tendency for number of prey 

 to decrease with fish size), indicates an active selec- 

 tion for prey taxa of large size. Moreover, specimens 

 of each size class showed a further trend towards 

 segregation of their feeding niches by consuming dif- 



