To bite, or not to bite? A quantitative comparison of foraging strategies among three brackish crustaceans feeding on leaf litters

A computerized image analysis technique was implemented to evaluate the damage done to leaf litters by macrophagous crustaceans characterized by different feeding strategies. In addition, a foraging strategy index (FSI) was tested to provide a quantitative estimation of both inter- and intra-specific, density-dependent changes in feeding strategies. Laboratory trials were run with the isopods Idotea baltica and Lekanesphaera hookeri and the amphipod Gammarus aequicauda. The effect of their feeding activities was tested on decaying leaves of Cymodocea nodosa and Phragmites australis. In addition, tests were run using three different abundances of each species to assess the occurrence of density-dependent shifts in feeding strategies. Independently from the leaf litter type, opposite foraging strategies characterized the isopods. Idotea baltica shredded the leaf blade heavily, whereas L. hookeri scraped the leaf surface removing the epidermis. Qualitative observations corresponded to consistent variations in FSI values, with Idotea showing the lowest and Lekanesphaera the highest FSI values. Leaves consumed by G. aequicauda, conversely, were characterized by both shredding and scraping damages, corresponding to intermediate FSI values compared to those measured for the isopods. Furthermore, negligible density-dependent changes in FSI values occurred for both isopods; Gammarus, in contrast, showed a significant shift in trophic strategies, with FSI values close to that observed for Lekanesphaera at high densities and to Idotea at low densities of conspecifics, respectively. The methodology and the FSI index herein presented provided an effective, quantitative assessment of species-specific differences in the feeding strategy of three ubiquitous components of Mediterranean detritivorous epifauna, for which only qualitative, phenomenological descriptions have been to date provided