Marine fish diversity and habitat use along the western coast of the Black Sea

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Marine fish diversity and habitat use along the western coast of the Black Sea Viorel D. Gavril1, 2, 3* 1 Institutu of Biology, Bucharest, Romania 2 Oceanographic Research and Marine Environment Protection Society Oceanic-Club, Romania 3 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography, Romania Over the years the conditions of the Black Sea marine habitats have been modified due to anthropogenic impacts and climate change, and it is likely that the diversity of fish fauna changed as a result. This study provides new data regarding marine fish population diversity and habitat use along the western coast of the Black Sea. I recorded fish species and habitat data between 2011 and 2014 in two locations: Constanta, Romania and Shabla-Tyulenovo coast, Bulgaria, using fishing (only in Romania) and scuba visual transects (Romania and Bulgaria). During this period, we identified a number of 45 fish species, belonging to 14 orders and 30 families. Observations made while scuba diving were of great importance for this study, as 47% of the species were identified using this method. These species include Sciaena umbra, Salaria pavo, Coryphoblennius galerita, Callionymus pusillus, Aphia minuta, Ophidion rochei, Diplodus annularis, and Chelidonichthys lucerna. Five broad types of habitats were delimited for the species identified: pelagic, sandy bottoms, rocky bottoms, rocky habitats with Cystoseira sp. and man-made structures like breakwaters. Vertically, the delimitation was made above and below the 10 meter line based on due to the differences in temperature, light penetration and surface wave interference. I identified 34 species of fish in the Shabla-Tyulenovo area and 39 species in the Constanta area, of which 19 species preferred sandy bottoms, 21 rocky bottoms, 16 rocky habitats with Cystoseira sp., 19 man-made structures and 9 were pelagic. For 7 species habitat preferences could not be determined as a result of capture only by fishing. In conclusion, the scuba visual transects along with fishing methods provide a relevant image to the current state of the fish diversity along the western coast of the Black Sea. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge O.R.M.E.P.S. Oceanic-Club for supporting the costs for the participation to the XV European Congress of Ichthyology and providing logistic help during field work. This study was partially supported by the Romanian Academy, Institute of Biology, Bucharest Project 4 (RO1567-IBB04/2015). Keywords: Fishes, habitat use, Black Sea, Romania, SCUBA diving Conference: XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Ecology, Conservation and Invasive Species Citation: Gavril VD (2015). Marine fish diversity and habitat use along the western coast of the Black Sea. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XV European Congress of Ichthyology. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2015.03.00177 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: 30 Nov 2015; Published Online: 01 Dec 2015. * Correspondence: Mr. Viorel D Gavril, Institutu of Biology, Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania, viorel.gavril26@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 Supplemental Data The Authors in Frontiers Viorel D Gavril Google Viorel D Gavril Google Scholar Viorel D Gavril PubMed Viorel D Gavril 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.