Abstract
Larval fishes are a useful metric of marine ecosystem state and change, as well as species-specific patterns in phenology. The high level of taxonomic expertise required to identify larval fishes to species level, and the considerable effort required to collect samples, make these data very valuable. Here we collate 3178 samples of larval fish assemblages, from 12 research projects from 1983-present, from temperate and subtropical Australian pelagic waters. This forms a benchmark for the larval fish assemblage for the region, and includes recent monitoring of larval fishes at coastal oceanographic reference stations. Comparing larval fishes among projects can be problematic due to differences in taxonomic resolution, and identifying all taxa to species is challenging, so this study reports a standard taxonomic resolution (of 218 taxa) for this region to help guide future research. This larval fish database serves as a data repository for surveys of larval fish assemblages in the region, and can contribute to analysis of climate-driven changes in the location and timing of the spawning of marine fishes.
Highlights
Background & SummaryThe early life history of most marine fishes occurs in the upper water column, with eggs and larvae developing as part of the plankton, before leaving the plankton for settlement as post-larvae
Survey data has been used for monitoring spawning habitats[7,8], and changes in phenology[9] and the spawning biomass of adult populations[10], and may be useful in this Australian region for helping interpret ecosystem changes in a climate change hotspot[11,12] undergoing substantial biological changes[13,14]
Descriptions of larvae for various species occurred from the 1950s onwards, and in the 1980s surveys of larval fish assemblages began in earnest in Australian temperate marine waters
Summary
The early life history of most marine fishes occurs in the upper water column, with eggs and larvae developing as part of the plankton, before leaving the plankton for settlement as post-larvae. Few scientists have the ability to identify many taxa to species level, and given the progressive loss of taxonomic expertise (and that a large proportion of fish species are endemic to southern Australia)[21], there is some uncertainty as to whether this expertise will extend to a new generation of marine scientists[22] This suggests that the taxonomic resolution of future surveys of larval fishes could decline without some guidance. This study had two aims: 1) to collate marine larval fish assemblage data from the 1980s onwards for temperate and subtropical Australian waters; and 2) to create a standard taxonomic resolution for these data, which can act as a target resolution for future larval fish research in the region (when identifying all taxa to species is not feasible). A snapshot of the Australian larval fish database at the time of this publication has been assigned a DOI and will be maintained in perpetuity by the AODN (Data Citation 1)
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