Late Quaternary to Recent diversity of fish otoliths from the Red Sea, central Mediterranean, and NE Atlantic sea bottoms

Lin, Chien‐Hsiang; Chiang, Yun Peng; Tuset, Víctor M.; Lombarte, Antoni; Girone, Angela

doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2018.06.002

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Five replicate samples were collected at each depth, sieved on a 0.5-mm mesh, and picked entirely to obtain an adequate quantity of otoliths. The identification of the otoliths was based on their morphological characteristics (Nolf, 1985) through direct comparison with fossil and recent specimens (Agiadi et al, 2018; Girone et al, 2006) and using the literature (Gierl et al, 2018; Lin et al, 2018; Lombarte et al, 2006, 2018; Nolf, 2013; Rivaton and Bourret, 1999; Smale et al, 1995; Tuset et al, 2008, 2011). Unidentifiable otoliths were excluded from the analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene fish assemblages provide baseline data for the rapidly changing eastern Mediterranean

Agiadi

Albano

2020

The Holocene

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The eastern Mediterranean marine ecosystem is undergoing massive modification due to biological invasions, overfishing, habitat deterioration, and climate warming. Our ability to quantify these changes is severely hindered by the lack of an appropriate baseline; most ecological datasets date back a few decades only and show already strong signatures of impact. Surficial death assemblages (DAs) offer an alternative data source that provides baseline information on community structure and composition. In this study, we reconstruct the marine fish fauna of the southern shallow Israeli shelf before the opening of the Suez Canal based on fish otoliths. We quantify the age of the otolith DAs by radiocarbon dating, and describe its taxonomic composition, geographic affinity, and trophic structure. Additionally, we test by radiocarbon dating the hypothesis that Bregmaceros, a presumed Lessepsian invader with continuous presence in the Mediterranean throughout the late Cenozoic, is a relict species. The otolith DA dates back to the mid-Holocene because 75% of the dated otoliths of the native species are older than the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, suggesting that the DA is a proper baseline for quantifying modern impacts. Consistently, 97% of the otoliths and 88% of the species we collected belong to native Mediterranean species. The native anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus dominates the DAs, although gobiids are the most diverse group (14 species, 28%). The DAs show similar trophic structure to present-day pristine Mediterranean coastal fish assemblages. Two non-indigenous species are recorded here for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, Amblygobius albimaculatus and Callogobius sp., highlighting the importance of DAs for detecting non-indigenous species. Finally, Bregmaceros otoliths are modern, not supporting the previous hypothesis that the taxon is a Pleistocene relict.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene fish assemblages provide baseline data for the rapidly changing eastern Mediterranean

Agiadi

Albano

2020

The Holocene

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“…Otoliths, or fish ear bones, are calcified structures used for balance and hearing in fishes [22]. Until now, it was widely considered that otoliths were rare in carbonate reef sediments to allow meaningful scientific inference due to carbonate cementation and dissolution of aragonite [21,23,24], despite their high abundance and nearly ubiquitous occurrences in other marine soft-bottom sediments [25,26] and their high preservation potential [27]. In this study, we show how careful examination of carbonate sands down to 500 μm in size in unconsolidated reef sediments can yield diverse and abundant otolith assemblages, and these can be used to explore questions related to reef fish community dynamics over time and space.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing reef fish communities using fish otoliths in coral reef sediments

et al. 2019

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Little is known about long-term changes in coral reef fish communities. Here we present a new technique that leverages fish otoliths in reef sediments to reconstruct coral reef fish communities. We found over 5,400 otoliths in 169 modern and mid-Holocene bulk samples from Caribbean Panama and Dominican Republic mid-Holocene and modern reefs, demonstrating otoliths are abundant in reef sediments. With a specially-built reference collection, we were able to assign over 4,400 otoliths to one of 56 taxa (35 families) though mostly at genus and family level. Many otoliths were from juvenile fishes for which identification is challenging. Richness (by rarefaction) of otolith assemblages was slightly higher in modern than mid-Holocene reefs, but further analyses are required to elucidate the underlying causes. We compared the living fish communities, sampled using icthyocide, with the sediment otolith assemblages on four reefs finding the otolith assemblages faithfully capture the general composition of the living fish communities. Radiocarbon dating performed directly on the otoliths suggests that relatively little mixing of sediment layers particularly on actively accreting branching coral reefs. All otolith assemblages were strongly dominated by small, fast-turnover fish taxa and juvenile individuals, and our exploration on taxonomy, functional ecology and taphonomy lead us to the conclusion that intense predation is likely the most important process for otolith accumulation in reef sediments. We conclude that otolith assemblages in modern and fossil reef sediments can provide a powerful tool to explore ecological changes in reef fish communities over time and space.

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“…While the bulk samples likely exhibited natural community structures (cf. Schwarzhans 2013;Lin et al 2016Lin et al , 2017bLin et al , 2018a, the surface samples contained marginally less than half of the entire composition and, inevitably, of taxa with large otoliths, such as the Sciaenidae and Ariidae (Table 2), were overestimated. This is natural because they are the largest and easiest to be found by surface sampling.…”

Section: Taphonomic Considerations and Sample Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%

Late Miocene otoliths from northern Taiwan: insights into the rarely known Neogene coastal fish community of the subtropical northwest Pacific

Lin

Chien

2021

Historical Biology

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Knowledge of Neogene fish diversity in Taiwan is extremely limited. In this paper, we present a collection of 1716 fish otoliths recovered from the late Miocene Tapu Formation. The abundance and density of otoliths vary across the sites. Although the preservation of samples is considerably limited, our sample coverage is sufficient and reveals the presence of at least 34 otolith-based taxa belonging to 13 families. Four new species are introduced: Larimichthys koae sp. nov., Nibea chaoi sp. nov., Taosciaena jiangi sp. nov., and T. hui sp. nov. Among the earliest fossil records, this collection features a remarkable abundance of Larimichthys spp. The assemblage is dominated by otoliths of Sciaenidae, Gobiidae and Soleidae, and it is indicative of a coastal shallow-water palaeoenvironment with muddy to sandy bottoms, perhaps adjacent to a river mouth. We hypothesise that the differences in the taxonomic composition between the fossil assemblage and modern fauna are mainly chronological and evolutionary, and only a moderate turnover of certain lineages has occurred since the Miocene. Our study provides a unique 'window' to a rarely visited fossil fish community that exclusively documented by fossil otolith data, and reveals a past coastal fish diversity that otherwise could not be recognised.

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Late Quaternary to Recent diversity of fish otoliths from the Red Sea, central Mediterranean, and NE Atlantic sea bottoms

Cited by 19 publications

References 30 publications

Holocene fish assemblages provide baseline data for the rapidly changing eastern Mediterranean

Holocene fish assemblages provide baseline data for the rapidly changing eastern Mediterranean

Reconstructing reef fish communities using fish otoliths in coral reef sediments

Late Miocene otoliths from northern Taiwan: insights into the rarely known Neogene coastal fish community of the subtropical northwest Pacific

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