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Abstract

The introduction of alien invasive species is one of the major threats to the native fish fauna of aquatic ecosystems. Exotic species spread new diseases and parasites, reduce the number of native fish, and disrupt the natural balance of ecosystems. The present study utilized stable isotopes of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) to examine the feeding patterns of eight aliens (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Carassius auratus, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis aureus, O. niloticus, and O. mossambicus) and four native (Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Catla catla, and Labeo calbasu) fish species from Head Baloki and upstream (Ravi River), Punjab, Pakistan from January to December in 2020. Community-wide metrics in the δ13C-δ15N bi-plot space, which reflect the important components of the trophic structure, were also calculated. The results demonstrate that there is trophic niche overlap and potential nutritional competition among co-existing species. The alien species cover greater trophic diversity and niche size than native fish species. This indicates that alien species are opportunistic feeders and consume various food items with multiple basal resources (wide range of δ13C values). Among the native fish, L. rohita with had lower δ15N and δ13C values displayed a slightly isolated dietary niche and no direct feeding competition with other species. This niche partitioning might be due to the feeding pressure imposed by the alien fishes in fastly changing aquatic ecosystem of Pakistan. The current study provides baseline data to aquaculturists, land managers, and researchers for the management of aliens and the conservation of native fish species.

Keywords

Native species Fish Trophic niche Stable Isotopic

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The authors transfer the copyrights of their papers to the Iranian Society of Ichthyology. However, the information could be used in accordance with the Creative Commons licence (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

How to Cite
IMRAN, M., KHAN, A. M., SAID, A., AHMED, A., REHMAN, I., & ALTAF, M. (2026). Trophic niche overlap investigation among native and alien fish species via Stable Isotope Analysis using Bayesian Inference. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology, 12(4), 394–407. https://doi.org/10.22034/iji.v12i4.1071
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