Morphometrics in Fisheries and Aquaculture

A special issue of Fishes (ISSN 2410-3888).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 6386

Special Issue Editors

Biology Department, University of Crete, Vasilika Vouton, 70013 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Interests: fish ontogeny and phenotypic plasticity; fish swimming performance; skeletal abnormalities; quality of reared fish; environmental biology of fish; aquaculture
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters (IMBRIW), Thalassocosmos, 71500 Gournes, Crete, Greece
Interests: fish age, growth and reproduction; larval fish ecology; ichthyoplankton; egg production methods; small pelagic fish; fisheries oceanography; fisheries ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The quantitative analysis of biological form (size and shape) is known as morphometrics. Depending on the methodology of data acquisition and mathematical analysis, morphometric approaches may vary from the traditional distance morphometrics to the box truss, the geometric or the outline morphometrics. This special issue focuses on the analysis of morphometric characters to study variability in the size and shape of fishes and other aquatic organisms. We welcome applications to phylogenetics, taxonomy, ontogeny, fisheries stock identification, and aquaculture research, including analysis of otolith morphology. Emphasis is given to technological and analytical advancements in morphometric analysis like image analysis, artificial intelligence tools, geometric morphometrics, truss network analysis, specialized multivariate analysis etc.

Prof. Dr. Giorgos Koumoundouros
Dr. Stylianos Somarakis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fishes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • morphological variation
  • allometry
  • phenotypic plasticity
  • fish stocks
  • aquaculture

Published Papers (4 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

23 pages, 10051 KiB  
Article
Stock Discrimination of Gilthead Seabream (Sparus aurata Linnaeus, 1758) through the Examination of Otolith Morphology and Genetic Structure
by George Geladakis, Costas Batargias, Stylianos Somarakis and George Koumoundouros
Fishes 2023, 8(6), 291; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8060291 - 29 May 2023
Viewed by 1825
Abstract
Reliable stock identification constitutes an integral component of effective fishery management. Current methods for the identification of putative stock units comprise the analysis of both phenotypic and genetic variability. The present study examined the spatial variation in otolith morphology (shape and asymmetry) and [...] Read more.
Reliable stock identification constitutes an integral component of effective fishery management. Current methods for the identification of putative stock units comprise the analysis of both phenotypic and genetic variability. The present study examined the spatial variation in otolith morphology (shape and asymmetry) and genetic composition of 395 wild-caught Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) specimens, collected from the Aegean and Ionian Seas (eastern Mediterranean) between 2014–2018. The degree of scale regeneration (SRD, % of regenerated scales) was used as an indicator to assess the potential presence of aquaculture escapees in the wild-caught samples. Otolith shape and asymmetry analyses showed a phenotypic discrimination between northwestern Aegean and Ionian Gilthead seabream populations. Genetic analyses of nine microsatellite markers revealed higher levels of genetic variation in the wild compared with samples obtained from aquaculture farms. Despite the absence of genetic structure among the wild-caught seabream populations, a low but statistically significant genetic differentiation was found between reared fish and fish collected in the field. The SRD was considered effective in detecting the presence of aquaculture escapees that may have escaped in either early or late rearing phases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Morphometrics in Fisheries and Aquaculture)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

13 pages, 3111 KiB  
Article
Fish Size Correlates to Size and Morphology of Intermuscular Bones in Tambaqui Colossoma macropomum as Shown by Dissection and X-ray Imaging Methods
by Naislan F. A. Oliveira, Lucas S. Torati, Luciana A. Borin-Carvalho, Leandro K. F. de Lima, Velmurugu Puvanendran, Thaís H. Demiciano, José J. T. da Silva, Aurisan da S. Barroso and Eduardo S. Varela
Fishes 2023, 8(4), 180; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8040180 - 28 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1587
Abstract
One of the main issues in the processing sector of the tambaqui Colossoma macropomum is the removal and/or fragmentation of intermuscular bones (IBs), which negatively impacts its production chain. In this sense, we quantitatively examined the IB variation in farmed tambaqui (n = [...] Read more.
One of the main issues in the processing sector of the tambaqui Colossoma macropomum is the removal and/or fragmentation of intermuscular bones (IBs), which negatively impacts its production chain. In this sense, we quantitatively examined the IB variation in farmed tambaqui (n = 127) by comparing the direct anatomical dissection with the high-resolution X-ray imaging method. The number of IBs from the anatomical dissection on the left side of the fish (27.3 ± 5.70 bones) was comparable to that of X-ray analysis (26.9 ± 6.03 bones) (p > 0.05). In addition, 76% of deviation in IB number between the two studied methods was one to three, indicating both methods are equally efficient for identifying and quantifying IBs. We found a strong positive correlation (R = 0.8, p < 0.001) between the X-ray and the dissection methods. Our predictive models indicated that more than 50% of variation in IB length can be explained by growth parameters. Our results demonstrated that the X-ray method can provide accurate phenotypic data (in vivo) for IB counting and length measurements by extrapolating from the standard length, body weight and trunk over axis area of tambaqui. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Morphometrics in Fisheries and Aquaculture)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

12 pages, 2324 KiB  
Article
Phenotypic Stock Evaluation of Plagioscion magdalenae (Steindachner, 1878): A Species in the Dique Channel in Colombia
by Jordan Hernandez, Margarita Correa, Raquel Hernández-P, Adriana Bermúdez, Adriana Quintana-Canabal, David Laroze and Hugo A. Benítez
Fishes 2023, 8(4), 173; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8040173 - 24 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1208
Abstract
Inland fishing is an essential activity for the livelihood and food security the Colombian population. The knowledge and evaluation of exploited fish stocks is a priority to develop sustainable management and conservation strategies of the fisheries. To optimize the management processes of fishery [...] Read more.
Inland fishing is an essential activity for the livelihood and food security the Colombian population. The knowledge and evaluation of exploited fish stocks is a priority to develop sustainable management and conservation strategies of the fisheries. To optimize the management processes of fishery resources and conservation of species, it is necessary to evaluate the population structure and identification of stocks. Geometric morphometrics analysis have shown useful in the evaluation of fish stocks. This study focuses on the species Plagioscion magdalenae, commonly called “Pacora”, corvinata, or river croaker, which belongs to the family Sciaenidae, a family characterized as an important fishery resource. With the aim of generating a baseline about the state of the P. magdalenae population structure, samples were collected along the marshy complex of the Dique channel, Colombia, between December 2020 and October 2021. In this study, the existence of morphometric variability between individuals of Plagioscion magdalenae was found across sampling sites, Ciénaga de Capote and Ciénaga del Jobo; shape differences between location suggest the action of environmental pressures and the existence of anthropogenic pressures, such as unsustainable artisanal fishing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Morphometrics in Fisheries and Aquaculture)
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 2591 KiB  
Article
Multilinear Regression Analysis between Local Bioimpedance Spectroscopy and Fish Morphological Parameters
by Vincent Kerzérho, Florence Azaïs, Serge Bernard, Sylvain Bonhommeau, Blandine Brisset, Laurent De Knyff, Mohan Julien, Michel Renovell, Tristan Rouyer, Claire Saraux and Fabien Soulier
Fishes 2023, 8(2), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8020088 - 01 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1108
Abstract
Repeated fish handling may cause stress, which biases experiments and so affects the results. In order to reduce this, the present study investigates the benefit of using bioimpedance analysis to estimate morphological parameters. Bioimpedance analysis is a non-lethal and integrative electrical measurement that [...] Read more.
Repeated fish handling may cause stress, which biases experiments and so affects the results. In order to reduce this, the present study investigates the benefit of using bioimpedance analysis to estimate morphological parameters. Bioimpedance analysis is a non-lethal and integrative electrical measurement that can be used to estimate several kinds of physiological parameters and is used in medicine and ecological studies. In particular, bioimpedance can monitor the individual growth of fish, which is a prerequisite for most biological and ecological studies, as body size is one of the best predictors for numerous life history traits and ecological parameters. After a short review on the use of bioimpedance measurement in medicine and ecology, we illustrate the potential of bioimpedance spectroscopy, as opposed to single frequency measurement, for experimental studies on fish. Using a monolithic four-contact electrode and a cost-effective portable system, we conducted bioimpedance spectroscopy on 159 sardines. The association between the length, weight, and electrical parameters obtained at different frequencies from the bioimpedance spectroscopy was investigated. Our results show that accounting for more than one frequency substantially improves the prediction of length and weight. We conclude that bioimpedance could potentially be a powerful tool for monitoring fish growth in ecological studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Morphometrics in Fisheries and Aquaculture)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop