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Myctobase, a circumpolar database of mesopelagic fishes for new insights into deep pelagic prey fields

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posted on 2023-05-21, 11:17 authored by Woods, B, Rowan TrebilcoRowan Trebilco, Andrea WaltersAndrea Walters, Mark HindellMark Hindell, Duhamel, G, Flores, H, Moteki, M, Pruvost, P, Reiss, C, Saunders, RA, Sutton, C, Gan, Y-M, Van de Putte, A
The global importance of mesopelagic fish is increasingly recognised, but they remain poorly studied. This is particularly true in the Southern Ocean, where mesopelagic fishes are both key predators and prey, but where the remote environment makes sampling challenging. Despite this, multiple national Antarctic research programs have undertaken regional sampling of mesopelagic fish over several decades. However, data are dispersed, and sampling methodologies often differ precluding comparisons and limiting synthetic analyses. We identified potential data holders by compiling a metadata catalogue of existing survey data for Southern Ocean mesopelagic fishes. Data holders contributed 17,491 occurrence and 11,190 abundance records from 4780 net hauls from 72 different research cruises. Data span across 37 years from 1991 to 2019 and include trait-based information (length, weight, maturity). The final dataset underwent quality control processes and detailed metadata was provided for each sampling event. This dataset can be accessed through Zenodo. Myctobase will enhance research capacity by providing the broadscale baseline data necessary for observing and modelling mesopelagic fishes.

History

Publication title

Scientific Data

Volume

9

Article number

404

Number

404

Pagination

1-9

ISSN

2052-4463

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment and management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean ecosystems; Assessment and management of pelagic marine ecosystems; Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences

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