Effects of specimen handling and otolith preparation on concentration of elements in fish otoliths |
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Authors: | C. H. Proctor R. E. Thresher |
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Affiliation: | (1) CSIRO Division of Marine Research, P.O. Box 1538, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia FAX: +61 3 6232 5000 e-mail: proctor@marine.csiro.au, AU |
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Abstract: | The use of otolith chemistry as a tool for analysing the biology of fishes assumes that the procedures used to collect and prepare otoliths for analysis do not alter their composition. With otoliths of Nemadactylus macropterus, Hoplostethus atlanticus, and Rhombosolea tapirina, we show that this assumption is not valid for the elements that can be detected using electron-probe microanalysers (those present at concentrations greater than ≃100 parts per million): all six elements routinely measured using these techniques were affected by at least one post-mortem procedure tested. Measured concentrations of calcium and strontium were relatively insensitive to most procedures tested, whereas concentrations of sodium, potassium, sulphur and chlorine were affected substantially by many commonly used procedures. The ease with which otolith composition could be modified post-mortem suggests that apparent geographic, habitat-specific or ontogenetic differences in otolith composition should be interpreted with extreme caution because of easily induced artefacts and the problem of pseudo-replication associated with the ways otoliths are sampled and prepared for analysis. Received: 23 September 1996 / Accepted: 11 April 1998 |
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