Discrimination between freshwater and marine fish using fatty acids: ecological implications and future perspectives.

MARINE fishes; FATTY acids; FRESHWATER fishes; OMNIVORES; EICOSAPENTAENOIC acid; CORAL reef fishes; MARINE phytoplankton; ZOOLOGY

The article reports that fatty acids (FA) are a major source of nutrients and energy in aquatic food webs, as well as serving as the main components of all cell membranes. Topics include increasing anthropogenic impacts are predicted to selectively alter the production of these critical compounds, and the comprehensive assessment of these potential effects has synthesized and systematically explored differences in the abundance and distribution of FA in fish.