Fish otoliths: uses of their structural, shape and chemical properties in ichthyology

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Fish otoliths: uses of their structural, shape and chemical properties in ichthyology Alberto T. Correia1, 2* 1 Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Portugal 2 Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde da Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Portugal Otoliths are inner ear aragonitic concretions used as hearing and balance organs by teleost fish. These hard structures have unique properties allowing them to have several applications in fish science. Otoliths are classically used to estimate the age of fish by counting daily and/or annual growth increments, particularly important for fisheries management purposes (e.g. determination of age at first maturity). Moreover, the tracking of some microstructural checks under visual microscope observation allow us to identify some key ecological life history fish events (e.g. settlement age). At present, the use of otolith morphology (e.g. landmarks and shape contour) is also contributing to assess the population structure of commercially important fish stocks. Recently, the use of high precision analytical methodologies permitted that the microchemistry (e.g. elemental and isotopic signatures) of otoliths had a remarkable growing in the last few years. At present, otoliths could complement, or even replace, other natural tags, such as the common genetic tools (e.g. mt-DNA and usat-DNA), in the study of the population structure, movement patterns and habitat connectivity in fish. Several published examples of the current applications and methodological pre-requisites of the use of fish otoliths will be shortly explored during this presentation. Moreover, future challenges of the otolith science will be also pinpointed. Acknowledgements This research was partially supported by the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/ 04423/2019 through national funds provided by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in the framework of the programme PT2020. Keywords: fish, Natural tags, otoliths, Applications & Properties and Structure, Life-cycle Conference: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2 Sep - 6 Sep, 2019. Presentation Type: Key-note Presentation Topic: OTOLITHS AS A TOOL TO STUDY FISH LIFE CYCLES Citation: Correia AT (2019). Fish otoliths: uses of their structural, shape and chemical properties in ichthyology. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XVI European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.07.00001 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 24 Jun 2019; Published Online: 14 Aug 2019. * Correspondence: Prof. Alberto T Correia, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Matosinhos, Portugal, atcorreia.ciimar@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Alberto T Correia Google Alberto T Correia Google Scholar Alberto T Correia PubMed Alberto T Correia Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.