| Aim The aim of this study was test whether maximum body mass and jaw length are reliable predictors of trophic position (TP) in fishes, and to compare linear and nonlinear machine‐learning (ML) models incorporating biogeography, habitat and other morphological traits. Location Global. Time period Modern. Major taxa studied Fishes. Methods We compiled a global database of TP (2.0–4.5), maximum body mass, jaw length, order, ecoregion, habitat and other morphological traits of freshwater, estuarine and diadromous fishes (n = 1,991). We used Bayesian linear mixed effects and ML, with r2 analogues and 10‐fold cross‐validation, to explain and predict TP. Results Random forest models outperformed Bayesian models in all comparisons. Jaw length was the most... |
