Event Abstract Back to Event Otoliths as a tool to study reef fish population structure from coastal islands of south Brazil Johnatas A. Alves1, Felippe Daros1, 2, Henry L. Spach1 and Alberto T. Correia1, 2, 3* 1 Centro de Estudos do Mar da Universidade Federal do Paraná (CEM-UFPR), Brazil 2 Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR-CIMAR), Portugal 3 Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade Fernando Pessoa (FCS-UFP), Portugal The damselfish, Abudefduf saxatilis, is a common and abundant fish species in the Brazilian coast, being considered a key species for structuring benthic communities on reef habitats. The reef fish assembly of Brazil is diverse, however there are some gaps on the scientific knowledge of some species at Western South Atlantic Ocean. This study intents to investigate whether otolith elemental and shape analyses can be used to differentiate A. saxatilis populations from coastal islands of south Brazil. A total of 60 adults (20 per site), ranging from 169 to 195 mm of standard length, were collected in December 2015 by spearfishing in three coastal islands in south Brazil (Bom Abrigo Island in the state off São Paulo, Galheta island in state off Paraná and Paz island in state off Santa Catarina). Elemental signatures of the whole sagittal otoliths were analyzed trough Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Calcium molar ratios were analyzed trough univariate (ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD post hoc) and multivariate (MANOVA and DFA) tests. A combination of otolith shape indices (circularity, aspect ratio, roundness and solidity) and elliptic Fourier descriptors were also analyzed by standard multivariate statistical procedures. This study suggests that otoliths can be used as useful tools to study the connectivity of rocky reef fish populations, providing a knowledge to an adequate management of the reef fish populations. Acknowledgements We thanks for IBAMA/ICMBio for research permits. J.A.A. acknowledge individual grants from Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) and F.A.M.D. benefited from a Brazilian PhD Grant (CAPES – BEX 1906/13-5). This research was supported by the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq) (473181/2012-6 and 401190/2014-5). Keywords: Pomacentrids, habitat connectivity, sagittae, Chemical composition, Shape Analysis Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: 1. ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS Citation: Alves JA, Daros F, Spach HL and Correia AT (2016). Otoliths as a tool to study reef fish population structure from coastal islands of south Brazil. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00112 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: 06 Jun 2016; Published Online: 03 Sep 2016. * Correspondence: Prof. Alberto T Correia, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR-CIMAR), Porto, 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 Johnatas A Alves Felippe Daros Henry L Spach Alberto T Correia Google Johnatas A Alves Felippe Daros Henry L Spach Alberto T Correia Google Scholar Johnatas A Alves Felippe Daros Henry L Spach Alberto T Correia PubMed Johnatas A Alves Felippe Daros Henry L Spach 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.