Swimbladder morphology masks Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass
Within the twilight of the oceanic mesopelagic realm, 200–1000 m below sea level, are potentially vast resources of fish. Collectively, these mesopelagic fishes are the most abundant vertebrates on Earth, and this global fish community plays a vital role in the function of oceanic ecosystems. The bi...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6545075 2023-05-15T13:51:43+02:00 Swimbladder morphology masks Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass Dornan, Tracey Fielding, Sophie Saunders, Ryan A. Genner, Martin J. 2019-05-29 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6545075/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31138069 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0353 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6545075/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31138069 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0353 © 2019 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Ecology Text 2019 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0353 2019-06-30T00:54:50Z Within the twilight of the oceanic mesopelagic realm, 200–1000 m below sea level, are potentially vast resources of fish. Collectively, these mesopelagic fishes are the most abundant vertebrates on Earth, and this global fish community plays a vital role in the function of oceanic ecosystems. The biomass of these fishes has recently been estimated using acoustic survey methods, which rely on echosounder-generated signals being reflected from gas-filled swimbladders and detected by transducers on vessels. Here, we use X-ray computed tomography scans to demonstrate that several of the most abundant species of mesopelagic fish in the Southern Ocean lack gas-filled swimbladders. We also show using catch data from survey trawls that the fish community switches from fish possessing gas-filled swimbladders to those lacking swimbladders as latitude increases towards the Antarctic continent. Thus, the acoustic surveys that repeatedly show a decrease in mesopelagic fish biomass towards polar environments systematically overlook a large proportion of fish species that dominate polar seas. Importantly, this includes lanternfish species that are key prey items for top predators in the region, including king penguins and elephant seals. This latitudinal community switch, from gas to non-gas dominance, has considerable implications for acoustic biomass estimation, ecosystem modelling and long-term monitoring of species at risk from climate change and potential exploitation. Text Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seals King Penguins Southern Ocean PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Southern Ocean The Antarctic Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 286 1903 20190353 |
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language |
English |
topic |
Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Ecology Dornan, Tracey Fielding, Sophie Saunders, Ryan A. Genner, Martin J. Swimbladder morphology masks Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass |
topic_facet |
Ecology |
description |
Within the twilight of the oceanic mesopelagic realm, 200–1000 m below sea level, are potentially vast resources of fish. Collectively, these mesopelagic fishes are the most abundant vertebrates on Earth, and this global fish community plays a vital role in the function of oceanic ecosystems. The biomass of these fishes has recently been estimated using acoustic survey methods, which rely on echosounder-generated signals being reflected from gas-filled swimbladders and detected by transducers on vessels. Here, we use X-ray computed tomography scans to demonstrate that several of the most abundant species of mesopelagic fish in the Southern Ocean lack gas-filled swimbladders. We also show using catch data from survey trawls that the fish community switches from fish possessing gas-filled swimbladders to those lacking swimbladders as latitude increases towards the Antarctic continent. Thus, the acoustic surveys that repeatedly show a decrease in mesopelagic fish biomass towards polar environments systematically overlook a large proportion of fish species that dominate polar seas. Importantly, this includes lanternfish species that are key prey items for top predators in the region, including king penguins and elephant seals. This latitudinal community switch, from gas to non-gas dominance, has considerable implications for acoustic biomass estimation, ecosystem modelling and long-term monitoring of species at risk from climate change and potential exploitation. |
format |
Text |
author |
Dornan, Tracey Fielding, Sophie Saunders, Ryan A. Genner, Martin J. |
author_facet |
Dornan, Tracey Fielding, Sophie Saunders, Ryan A. Genner, Martin J. |
author_sort |
Dornan, Tracey |
title |
Swimbladder morphology masks Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass |
title_short |
Swimbladder morphology masks Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass |
title_full |
Swimbladder morphology masks Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass |
title_fullStr |
Swimbladder morphology masks Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass |
title_full_unstemmed |
Swimbladder morphology masks Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass |
title_sort |
swimbladder morphology masks southern ocean mesopelagic fish biomass |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6545075/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31138069 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0353 |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seals King Penguins Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seals King Penguins Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6545075/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31138069 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0353 |
op_rights |
© 2019 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.0353 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
286 |
container_issue |
1903 |
container_start_page |
20190353 |
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1766255736597250048 |