Trophic niche dynamics of two fish mesoconsumers in adjacent coastal habitats with varying nutrient regimes.

Changes of consumers' trophic niches, the n-dimensional biotic space that allows a species to satisfy its minimum requirements for population growth, are driven in part by shifts in the degree of individual resource use specialization within a population. Individual specialization results from complex trade-offs in inter- and intraspecific competition as organisms reduce niche overlap within a population or with heterospecifics. It is vital to build empirical knowledge on the trophic niche dynamics of consumers, given the role that niche dynamics play in food web stability, species coexistence, and population resilience, especially quantifying the trophic niche's expansion and contraction of coastal fish populations experiencing increasing frequency of environmental disturbance and habitat transformation.