Antarctic silverfish
| Antarctic silverfish | |
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| Genus: | Pleuragramma Boulenger, 1902
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| Species: | P. antarcticum
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| Pleuragramma antarcticum | |
Pleuragramma antarcticum, the Antarctic silverfish, is a species of cod icefish native to the Southern Ocean.[3]
Pleuragramma antarcticum is a keystone species in the ecosystem of the Southern Ocean.[4]
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 US Antarctic Program.[5]
Description
It usually grows to about 15 cm in length, with a maximum of 25 cm. When alive it is pink with a silver tint, but turns silver only after death.[3] 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]
Ecology
The postlarvae 8–17 mm in size feed on eggs of calanoids (Calanoida), sea snails Limacina and tintinnids (Tintinnida).[7] Juveniles feeds on copepods (Copepoda), mostly on Oncaea curvata.[7]
Antarctic silverfish are an important prey species for high trophic animals, such as the Adelie penguin and the Weddell seal.
References
- ^ Gon, O. & Vacchi, M. 2010. Pleuragramma antarcticum. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. <www.iucnredlist.org Archived June 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine>. Downloaded on 02 March 2014.
- ^ Boulenger G. A. (1902). Rep. Voy. Southern Cross, p. 187.
- ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Pleuragramma antarcticum". FishBase. February 2014 version.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.