Biometric relation between body size and otolith size of seven commercial fish species of the south-western Atlantic

Abstract

Given the importance and applicability of these biometric relations, the present work aimed to verify the existence of correlations between the length of saggitae otoliths and the body size of seven south‐western Atlantic marine fish species and to generate equations to estimate the body size of these species through otolith measurements. Fifty otoliths of Centropomus parallelus, Centropomus undecimalis, Lutjanus analis, Lutjanus jocu, Lutjanus synagris, Chaetodipterus faber and Mugil curema were collected for analysis. Significant relations between otolith length and total length and otolith width and total length were found for all the species. The highest coefficient of determination was observed for Centropomus undecimalis and Lutjanus synagris, for both relations, and the lowest was observed for Mugil curema. The results show that estimates of body size of the species through biometric analyses of otoliths are reliable. Based on this, the equations generated to obtain the total length of the fish using biometric otolith data can be used in dietary studies of top predators and in paleontological recostructions of modern fish.

Biometric relation between body size and otolith size of Cyprinionkais and C. macrostomum collected from Tigris River, Şırnak Province,Türkiye

“…The reason behind developing more than one equation that links the fish's size with the otolith's biometric features is the occurrence of damage on the margins of the otoliths, as shown by several studies (de Assis et al 2018). Even though the determination coefficient estimates were well represented in the results, the equations produced should be used cautiously.…”

“…The otoliths are considered chemically inert configurations because, after deposition of the layers, they remain meta-biologically inactive during the individual's life (Green et al 2009). As valuable tools in taxonomy, the surface features of the otoliths can change during the growth of the individuals of the species and between different species of fish (de Assis et al 2018). Regarding such features, a link was discovered between body size and otolith size (Altin & Ayyildiz 2017, Zan 2015.…”

Biometric relationships between body size and otolith size in 15 demersal marine fish species from the northern Brazilian coast

“…Scianidae), the b values tended to negative allometry in most relationships, as species within families are relatively more similar in shape. Most studies providing relationships between otolith and fish size have used only the width and length of the otolith (Giménez et al 2016;Assis et al 2018;Park et al 2018).…”

“…An analysis of the otolith−fish size relationship for juveniles of four species of Scianidae in the De la Plata River estuary, in southern Uruguay (Waessle et al 2003), included three of our species (M. ancylodon, M. furnieri, and P. brasiliensis), which showed similar parameter values to those estimated in our study. Assis et al (2018) analyzed seven species of commercial importance from the coast of Bahia, in northeastern Brazil, and Souza et al (2019) studied Pomatomus saltatrix from the coast of Rio de Janeiro in the southeast. Besides their economic importance, some of these fish species, such as M. ancylodon, M. americanus, M. furnieri, P. harrowerri, and T. lepturus, are common prey of the estuarine dolphin, Sotalia guianensis (Van Bénéden, 1864), that occurs along the Brazilian coast (Vieira 2014), further highlighting the importance of our biometric estimators for ecological studies.…”

“…These structures are arranged in pairs, called sagitta, asteriscus, and lapillus in bony fish, and vary widely in size and shape among species (Campana 2004;Popper et al 2005). Due to its largest size in the majority of bone fishes, sagittae otoliths are the most suitable for systematic and ecological studies, for taxon identification, age estimation, and life history tracking (Harvey et al 2000;De La Cruz-Agüero et al 2016;Assis et al 2018). Their nondigestible calcified structure has allowed them to be widely used to identify fishes ingested by different predators such as aquatic mammals, seabirds and fishes (Battaglia et al 2010;Tuset et al 2010).…”