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¹ Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Grupo de Investigación en Ecología de Estuarios y Manglares, Universidad del Valle, Calle 13 No. 100-00, Ciudad Universitaria Meléndez, Valle del Cauca, Cali, Colombia.
² Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas

Mangroves are important ecosystems of tropical and subtropical shorelines. Anthropogenic activity decreases their habitatquality, affecting structural and functional trophic features. We hypothesized that higher levels of anthropogenic interventiongenerate diversity loss and modify the trophic structure of tropical mangrove fish communities. We compared thetaxonomic and isotopic (d13C/d15N) composition, abundance, trophic position, and isotopic niche of fish communities fromthree mangrove systems with different anthropogenic intervention levels in the Colombian Pacific. Non-parametric statisticaltests and a Bayesian approach were used to analyze data. A total of 1254 specimens belonging to 23 families, 25 genera,and 30 species were identified, presenting higher abundance (821) in moderate anthropogenic intervention level mangrove(Moderate-AIL), with high dominance of one species (Lile stolifera). The low anthropogenic intervention level mangrove(Low-AIL) was the second in abundance (291) but exhibited a greater number of species (23), while the high anthropogenicintervention level mangrove (High-AIL) presented the least abundance (142) and species number (17). The isotopiccomposition reveals that Moderate and High-AIL mangroves presented enriched 13C and 15 N compared to Low-AIL (~ 2to 4 ‰). Mean trophic position (TP) of communities was slightly higher in the more intervened systems (~ 1 to 2 orders ofmagnitude), as well as in specific species (Centropomus spp.). Isotopic niche width (TA and SEAc) was greater in High-AIL(41.1 and 9.2), more than doubled compared to Moderate-AIL (33.0 and 4.1). In High-AIL isotopic niche width increased,indicating lesser availability of prey and basal resources. The results obtained in this study support the proposed hypothesisand, suggest that anthropogenic intervention modifies diversity and food webs dynamics, affecting the transfer of matter andenergy from macrotidal tropical mangroves to coastal ecosystems. However, it is recommended to be careful concludingdifferences based exclusively on the anthropogenic intervention level, since it is widely documented that mangrove settingsalso influence the analyzed trophic parameters.

Palabras clave: Colombia; Ecosystem modelling; fisheries; isotopic niche; Mangrove ecology; Trophic position

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