To glue or not to glue? Reassembling broken otoliths for population discrimination

• Published in: Journal of Fish Biology
• Main Authors: Bardarson, Hlynur, McAdam, Bruce James, Petursdottir, Groa, Marteinsdottir, Gudrun
• Other Authors: University of Iceland, Institute of Aquaculture, Marine Research Institute (Hafrannsoknastofnunin), orcid:0000-0001-6117-2437
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2014
• Subjects: cluster analysis; Fourier analysis; gluing; morphology; otolith archives; shape measurements; atlantic cod; Gadus morhua
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/20073; https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.12390; http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/20073/1/Bardarson_et_al_2014_otolith_breaking_JOURNAL_VERSION.pdf

Twenty-five Atlantic cod Gadus morhua otoliths were examined using eight shape measurements along with Fourier analysis of their outlines to test whether discrimination using otolith shape is affected by gluing broken otoliths. Small differences in seven of the eight shape measurements were found between unbroken otoliths and the same otoliths after breaking and subsequently gluing together; however, none of the Fourier descriptors differed. Cluster analyses indicated that resultant morphological differences will have no impact when applying discriminant analysis.