What is the primary factor necessitating a flexible menu for yellowfin tuna across their range?
Answer
Environmental variability across tropical and subtropical zones
The yellowfin tuna possesses an enormous geographical range, spanning both tropical and subtropical waters and utilizing a wide vertical spectrum from the surface down to significant depths. This vast environmental variability—changes in water temperature, pressure, and associated species availability due to depth or location (coastal versus oceanic)—forces the tuna to maintain a flexible diet. If they were specialists, they could not survive the dramatic differences in available prey encountered when moving from a warm surface layer to cooler mid-water columns.
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