Abstract
Ichthyoplankton surveys hold much potential for studying fish biodiversity, but challenges and uncertainties in identification of early life stages and the drifting of planktonic eggs and larvae limit the efficacy of this method. In this study, we investigate mesopelagic fish biodiversity in Antalya Bay in the Northeastern Mediterranean Sea, based on ichthyoplankton samplings in combination with integrative taxonomy and particle backtracking simulations to overcome the forementioned limitations. We morphologically identified early life stages of 26 mesopelagic species and the identification of 17 of them was validated using DNA barcoding. With 13 species identified, Myctophidae was the most diverse family. Larvae of Cyclothone braueri Jespersen & Tåning, 1926, Diaphus holti Tåning, 1918, Ceratoscopelus maderensis (Lowe, 1839) and Cyclothone pygmea Jespersen & Tåning, 1926, constituted the most dominant species in the study area. Based on larval samples, we provided the first record of Paralepis coregonoides Risso, 1820, the first substantiated records of Vinciguerria poweriae (Cocco, 1838) and Hygophum hygomii (Lütken, 1892) and the second record of Evermannella balbo (Risso, 1820) off the Turkish coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Particle backtracking simulations revealed that the spawning grounds of these species were in Antalya Bay, suggesting that there were reproducing populations of these species off the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, although these were not properly documented before the present study. Our results demonstrate that ichthyoplankton surveys can provide a reliable practice to study the biodiversity of understudied and difficult to access fish groups when combined with molecular identification techniques and particle backtracking simulations.
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Acknowledgements
This study was performed with the financial support of Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policy (Grant Code: TAGEM/HAYSUD/B/18/SU/P-02/01), and Çukurova University, Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit (Grant Code: FBA-2021-13268). We would like to express my appreciation to Dr. Çağıl Çoşkun for supervision in genetic analyses, Dr. Ismet Saygu for valuable suggestions, and Dr. Aylin Ulman for proofreading of this manuscript. We are grateful to Dr. Meltem Ok and the personnel of R.V. Bilim 2 and R.V. Akdeniz Araştırma 1 for their valuable help in the sample collection works. We would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive criticisms and suggestions towards improving our manuscript.
Funding
This study was performed with the financial support of Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policy (Grant Code: TAGEM/HAYSUD/B/18/SU/P-02/01), and Çukurova University, Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit (Grant Code: FBA-2021-13268).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data collection and analysis were performed by SM, CT, FBY, ÖA, and AY. DNA barcoding analyses were performed and investigated by AEÜ, ŞSY, and AK. The first draft of the manuscript was written by SM and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Mavruk, S., Toslak, C., Yalım, F.B. et al. Contribution of integrative taxonomy of ichthyoplankton to knowledge on mesopelagic fish biodiversity in the Northeastern Mediterranean. Mar. Biodivers. 53, 7 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-022-01312-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-022-01312-1