Otolith elemental fingerprinting and scale and otolith morphometry in Prochilodus lineatus provide identification of natal nurseries

AVIGLIANO, ESTEBAN; DOMÁNICO, ALEJANDRO; SÁNCHEZ SÁNCHEZ; VOLPEDO, ALEJANDRA

FISHERIES RESEARCH

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2017 vol. 186 p. 1 - 10

0165-7836

Identification of nursery areas is a basic requirement for fishing management in large rivers. Morphometry (circularity, ellipticity, form factor, rectangularity and roundness indices) and chemistry (Sr:Ca, Ba:Ca and Zn:Ca ratios) of lapilli otolith, and geometric morphometry of scales of juveniles Prochilodus lineatus, in three sites in the Plata basin, were compared in order to evaluate the applicability to identify possible nursery areas. Otolith microchemistry based on ICP-OES found significant differences in the concentrations of barium and zinc among sample sites. Otolith microchemistry appears to be a good effective tool in identifying individual fish from different locations (67.9%-84.2% respectively). Otolith morphometry found significant differences in the ellipticity, circularity and form factor indices between sites. Otolith morphological indices supported results from the elemental study with allocation success of 63.2-82.8%. Considering all scale geometric morphometry variables, discriminant analysis showed a good percentage of classification of individuals (58.3-78.9%). These results indicate that the otolith microchemisty and morphometry (circularity and rectangularity indices) and scale morphometry are good markers of habitat and represent a potential tool for identification of streaked prochilod nursery areas