Original scientific paper

Summer fish larval assemblages and station groups in the northern Aegean Sea

Athanassios C. TSIKLIRAS orcid.org/0000-0002-9074-3259 ; Laboratory of Ichthyology, Department of Zoology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly, Nea Ionia, Volos, Greece
Emmanuil T. KOUTRAKIS ; Fisheries Research Institute-NAGREF, Nea Peramos, Kavala, Greece

Abstract

Fish larvae were collected in two surveys, carried out at the beginning of July 2002 and 2003 in Kavala Gulf (northern Aegean Sea) aimed at studying ichthyoplankton species assemblages and station groupings. The similarity dendrograms revealed the existence of four species assemblages associated with three station groups in 2002 and five species assemblages associated with four station groups in 2003. These groupings were confirmed by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis. Analysis of similarity showed that the station groups were significantly different for 2002 (global R=0.748; P<0.001) and 2003 (global R=0.931; P<0.001). High dissimilarity between species assemblages as obtained from dendrograms and NMDS analyses was also recorded for 2002 (global R=0.834; P<0.001) and 2003 (global R=0.767; P<0.001). The assemblage structure was mainly determined by the most abundant and frequently occurring larvae, especially the European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), and was largely influenced by the reproductive traits and spatial distribution of adult fish. Differences among station groupings were also determined by the spatial occurrence and abundance of each taxon.

Keywords

ichthyoplankton; assemblages; Aegean Sea; Mediterranean Sea

Hrčak ID:

89646

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/89646

Publication date:

30.6.2011.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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