Antarctic silverfish
| Antarctic Silverfish | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Suborder: | Notothenioidei |
| Family: | Nototheniidae |
| Genus: | Pleuragramma Boulenger, 1902[1] |
| Species: | P. antarcticum |
| Binomial name | |
| Pleuragramma antarcticum Boulenger, 1902[1] |
|
The Antarctic Silverfish, Pleuragramma antarcticum is a member of the suborder Notothenioidei of the Perciform fishes.[2]
Pleuragramma antarcticum is a keystone species in the ecosystem of the Southern Ocean.[3]
While widely distributed around the Antarctic, the species appears to have largely disappeared from the western side of the northern Antarctic Peninsula based on a 2010 research cruise funded by the National Science Foundation under the U.S. Antarctic Program.[4]
[edit] Description
It usually grows to approximately 15 centimetres in length, with a maximum of 25 centimetres. When alive it is pink with a silver tint, but turns silver only after death.[5] This Antarctic marine fish is one of several in the region which produce antifreeze glycopeptides as an adaptation against the extreme cold of Antarctic waters.[6]
[edit] Ecology
Postlarvae in size 8–17 mm feeds on eggs on calanoids (Calanoida), sea snails Limacina and tintinnids (Tintinnida).[7] Juveniles feeds on copepods (Copepoda), mostly on copepod Oncaea curvata.[7]
Antarctic silverfish are an important prey species for high trophic animals like the Adelie penguin and the Weddell seal.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Boulenger G. A. (1902). Rep. Voy. Southern Cross, p. 187.
- ^ "Pleuragramma antarcticum". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=642933. Retrieved 11 March 2006.
- ^ Bottaro M., Oliveri D., Ghigliotti L., Pisano E., Ferrando S. & Vacchi M. (2009). "Born among the ice: first morphological observations on two developmental stages of the Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarcticum, a key species of the Southern Ocean". Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 19(2); 249-259. doi:10.1007/s11160-009-9106-5.
- ^ "Climate change may be to blame for disappearance of Antarctic silverfish". The Antarctic Sun. http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2192.
- ^ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2005). "Pleuragramma antarcticum" in FishBase. November 2005 version.
- ^ A. P. Wohrmann (1995). "Antifreeze glycopeptides in the high-Antarctic Silverfish Pleurogramma antarcticum (Notothenioidei)". Comp. Biochem. Physiol. C. Toxicol. Endocrinol. 111 (1): 121–9. doi:10.1016/0742-8413(95)00007-T. PMID 7656179.
- ^ a b Granata A., Zagami G., Vacchi M. & Guglielmo L. (2009). "Summer and spring trophic niche of larval and juvenile Pleuragramma antarcticum in the Western Ross Sea, Antarctica". Polar Biology 32(3): 369-382. doi:10.1007/s00300-008-0551-8.
