Distribution of fish larvae on the Vitória-Trindade Chain, southwestern Atlantic

Abstract

This work presents a checklist of ichthyoplankton collected along the Vitória-Trindade chain with oblique bongo hauls to a depth of 20 m in the summer and in the winter. Larvae were classified according the adult habitat as reef, epipelagic or mesopelagic. The variables season, depth, sampling time, environment type and distance from the continental shelf were used to test the correlation with the larval density of each larval category. In the summer, 3,897 larvae were captured (identified at the family, genera or species level, n = 44, 33 and 82, respectively) and 1,026 larvae were captured in the winter (19, 17 and 25, respectively). Only the variables season and environment type significantly affected density, with their influence varying among larval categories.