EGU21-879
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-879
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Addressing challenges in biodiversity conservation with fish otolith death assemblages: the state-of-the-art

Konstantina Agiadi1 and Paolo G. Albano2
Konstantina Agiadi and Paolo G. Albano
  • 1University of Vienna, Department of Palaeontology, Vienna, Austria (konstantina.agiadi@univie.ac.at)
  • 2University of Vienna, Department of Palaeontology, Vienna, Austria (pgalbano@gmail.com)

Fish otoliths are incrementally growing aragonitic elements found in the inner ear of most fishes. They have species-specific morphology that enable species level identification and they are excellent high-resolution recorders of ambient water conditions, enabling the reconstruction of past fish faunas and their environment. Although they have been studied as fossils for almost 150 years, and they are very useful tools for tracking lifestyle and population changes in modern fishes, otolith death assemblages recovered from sea bottom sediments have been studied only much more recently. Still, these fish remains can provide valuable insight into past fish faunas before most anthropogenic impacts, such as climate warming, habitat modification and biological invasions. Here, we present an overview of research done until now on otolith death assemblages highlighting their applications for marine conservation.

How to cite: Agiadi, K. and Albano, P. G.: Addressing challenges in biodiversity conservation with fish otolith death assemblages: the state-of-the-art, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-879, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-879, 2021.

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