Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Laboratoire Arago
Résumé : International audience
Within all plankton surveys, teleostean eggs are collected together with the plankton, but their identification is generally not considered because of the lack of knowledge in descrip- tive taxonomic key. nevertheless, they can provide relevant information on biology and ecology of species, as well as on the condition of fishing stock in respect to fishery sciences. In the pres- ent work, we are proposing, for the first time, a determination key for fish eggs, based on quali- tative, quantitative and ecological features to identify teleostean eggs of many species occurring in the Mediterranean Sea. Descriptors where followed and established while keeping alive eggs until hatching, since it get nearly always possible to determine the species or the genus to which they belong at the hatching stage and get back then to look for specific characteristics of the eggs.
ISSN: 0240-8759

hal-01160066
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01160066

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Laboratoire Arago
Résumé : International audience
Some coral reefs are threatened around the world due to the effects of coastaldevelopment, over-fishing and multiple factors associated with global climate change. In 2013,a monitoring programme was implemented in Western Samoa to document changes in reef communitiesand the impacts of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Underwater visual surveysreported the first data on coral cover on the north coast of Western Samoa. Between 2013 and2015, all living coral genera (Acropora, Leptoria, Montipora, Platygyra, Pocillopora) droppedfrom 42 % to 0 %. The interaction of crown-of-thorns startfish outbreak in 2010-2014 andunusually high temperature in 2015 could have acted as a deathly combination for the coralreefs in Western Samoa.
ISSN: 0240-8759

hal-01416776
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01416776

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Laboratoire Arago
Résumé : International audience
As it is unlikely that successful settlement is solely a matter of chance (i.e. tofind a suitable habitat), one of the greatest challenges facing the fish larvae is how to locate therelatively rare patches of coral reef habitat on which they settle and ultimately reside as adults.The answer must lie partly in the sensory modalities of fishes at settlement. Habitat selection isonly possible if fish larvae could detect some environmental cues to select a suitable reef habitatat settlement. The present review aims at providing the latest works dealing with informationperception in coral reef fish larvae at settlement. Two decades ago, it was generally assumedthat larval behaviors and sensory abilities at settlement were considered too feeble to significantlyaffect dispersal outcomes. Several recent studies showed that recognition of suitable reefhabitats by fish larvae at settlement is based on a combination of visual, chemical and acousticcues. The first part of our review shows the main advances in the knowledge of visual, chemicaland acoustic cues used by fish larvae to detect an island, a reef, a micro-habitat, a conspecific orsome predators. The second part of our review deals with the effect of imprinting and/or innatecapabilities. The third part focuses on the different cues used at different scales and underlinessome contradictory results about the distance of transmission and detection of chemical andacoustic cues in coral reefs. Finally, as global and regional environmental changes have stressedcoral reefs to such an extent that they are either destroyed or in decline, the fourth part presentsthe effects of both anthropogenic and environmental stressors on information perception andresponse capacities in coral reef fish larvae. If polluted seawater disrupts the larval abilities tofind a suitable reef habitat, fish larvae may spend more time in the planktonic environment,resulting in increased energetic costs and predation risk, and consequently a lower larval settlement.We hypothesise that as the stability of fish communities is dependent, in part, on the stabilityof social interactions, the disruption of “larvae-habitat relationships” can have major consequencesfor larval settlement into adult population with further repercussions for the ecosystemas a whole. Overall, larval settlement of coral reef fish is an excellent example of the complexityof interactions between an organism and its environment as without perceiving environmentalcues, fish larva would have very little chance of selecting a suitable reef habitat. Moreover,understanding the relationship between reef state and settlement potential will allow managementplanning for the maintenance of coral reefs that are increasingly degraded.
ISSN: 0240-8759

hal-01191776
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01191776

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Laboratoire Arago
Résumé : International audience
The analysis of the C-O stable isotope composition of coral reef fish otoliths from Taiaro, a French Polynesian atoll normally isolated from the Pacific Ocean, has been performed to address two main questions. The first is to confirm previous results which suggest that a lagoonal coral reef fish population is able to achieve its ontogenetic cycle without any open ocean phase. If so, are O isotopic values of otoliths an indicator of temperature fluctuations in the tropical Pacific Ocean related to climate change and in particular temperature variations of water masses? δ18O and δ13C values on both lagoon and open ocean fish otoliths caught in 2006 indicated clearly that O-isotopes reached the isotopic equilibrium; in contrast, all δ13C values exhibited a strong isotopic disequilibrium related to metabolic activity. Stable isotope compositions revealed a clear differentiation between fish from lagoons and those from the open ocean (with a δ18O enrichment of 1 ‰ in favour of the lagoon). This confirmed a lack of connectivity between habitats and that fish from lagoon lived their entire life cycle in the lagoon. Both δ18O and δ13C data indicated differences between nucleus and edge signatures with changes in fish behavior from the larval life to adulthood (habitat, diet, etc.), and a clear adaptation of dietary behavior of lagoon fish. The comparison of the 2006 data set with those of 1994 showed that environmental conditions were stable in the lagoon, leading to a very narrow range of variations in the δ18O values. δ18O of fish otoliths of the open ocean exhibited a wider variation (+0.25 ‰) between 1994 and 2006, suggesting a decrease in temperature linked to a change of SST, which can be interpreted in terms of climate change associated with El Nino Southern Oscilation (ENENSO). These differences could also be due to a switch of habitats during the life cycle of fish from the open ocean.
ISSN: 0240-8759

hal-01162477
https://hal-univ-perp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01162477