1University of the Ryukyus – 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan, Japan
2Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba – 955-2 Aoba-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8682, JAPAN, Japan
3 Natural History Museum, Bern – 15 Bernastrasse, Bern 3005, Switzerland, Switzerland
4Kyoto University – 459 Shirahama, Nishimuro, Wakayama 649-2211 Japan, Japan
5Okinawa Churashima Foundation – 888 Ishikawa, Motobu 905-0206, Japan, Japan
The gobioid fishes (Teleostei, Perciformes), distributed worldwide, except for the Arctic and Antarctic regions, include>2000 species. They are adapted to various environments, for exam- ple exposed littoral surfaces and swiftly running streams, and a wide altitudinal range between the sea bottom (> 300 m depth) and mountain streams (1000 m above sea level). Gobioid’s sizes range from 8-10 mm in standard length (SL) to>500 mm SL. Gobioids also include pae- domorphic species, having a permanent planktonic life form. Accordingly, the life histories (egg size, duration of planktonic larvae, age at maturity, duration of reproduction, longevity, etc.) of gobioids are widely diverse.
Here we aimed to obtain a robust, time-calibrated phylogenetic framework of gobioids to elu- cidate the evolution and diversification of this speciose group. Our phylogenetic hypothesis is based on nucleotide sequences of the whole mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and three nuclear genes (rag1, zic1, gpr85) . Today, many partial sequences of mtDNA of gobioids have been deposited in DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank. We performed a comprehensive investigation of the phy- logenetic relationships among gobioid species on a worldwide basis using the best-scoring ML tree topology obtained in the above analysis as a backbone constraint and a ”supermatrix”
comprising the downloaded partial mtDNA sequences from the database (total 523 species).
Our phylogenetic analysis yielded a topology with resolution of the branching pattern among gobioids and revealed 31 major lineages. The resultant trees showed that the unstable or rogue gobioid genera Kraemeria (sanddivers) and the Schindleria (paedomorphic goby) were placed as sister group to the Gobiidae and Oxymetopon, respectively. The divergence time of the 31 lineages was estimated to be 65–35 million years ago (Mya) by a fossil-based method. Addition- ally, using the supermatrix tree described above, character evolution reconstruction of salinity preference indicates that the common ancestor of the Gobioidei likely inhabited a freshwater–
euryhaline environment. We also calculated diversification rates via the BAMM framework. The analysis identified four significant rate shifts within gobioids occurring at different times in four distinct lineages (Rhinogobius-, Sicydiines-, Gobiodon-, andGobius-lineages).
∗Speaker
Neglected taxa, morphology and molecules:
recent advances in systematics of gobioid fishes (Teleostei, Gobioidei)
Lukas R¨ uber ∗ 1,2, Ulrich Schliewen 3
1 Naturhistorisches Museum Bern (NMBE) – Bernastrasse 15, 3005 Bern, Switzerland
2University of Bern – Institut of Ecology and Evolution, Baltzerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
3 Zoologische Staatssammlung M¨unchen - SNSB (ZSM) – Department of Ichthyology, M¨unchhausenstrasse 21, 81247 M¨unchen, Germany
With over 2200 species worldwide, the Gobioidei is undoubtedly one of the most species-rich clades of fishes. However, our understanding of phylogenetic relationships among gobioids is still poor and there is still no consensus regarding the number of families recognized. A serious problem in our advancement of gobioid systematics is the lack of morphological studies and the fact that many gobioid clades are still undiagnosed by synapomorphies. Here, we focus on the
‘basal’ gobioid families Rhyacichthyidae, Odontobutidae, Milyeringidae, Eleotrididae, Butidae, Xenisthmidae and Thalasseleotrididae, characterized by six branchiostegal rays. We will provide an overview of previous morphology based studies and will present novel molecular data (mi- tochondrial and nuclear DNA) extending the study of Agorreta et al. (2013), representing the most comprehensive molecular phylogenetic framework of gobioid fishes thus far. We further use different fossil calibration strategies to provide a time-calibrated framework of gobioid evolution.
New data on the distribution of the fossil gobiiform fishes in the Miocene of the
Eastern Paratethys
Alexander Bannikov ∗ 1
1 Borisyak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences – Profsoyuznaya 123, Moscow 117647, Russia
Living gobiiforms are small benthic percomorph fishes, both marine and freshwater, have a worldwide distribution and represent one of the most species-rich vertebrate clades. The fossil record of the Gobiiformes is based on both skeletal material and isolated otoliths. Although the most ancient osteologically-based gobioid is known from the early Eocene (Bannikov & Carnevale 2016), the overall gobiiform fossil record is relatively scarce and mostly restricted to the Miocene of southern and central Europe. However, numerous articulated skeletons collected from lower and middle Miocene marine and brackish strata of the Eastern Paratethys, i.e. eastern Europe and western Asia, provide a new contribution to the evolutionary history of gobiiform fishes.
This material is mostly undescribed yet and originates from the nine localities of different age.
During the early and middle Miocene, the Eastern Paratethys was a huge intercontinental sea basin that extended from Bulgaria and Romania across the Black Sea and the lowlands north of the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea; sometimes it was separated from the World Ocean. The old- est Eastern Paratethian gobiiform fossils originate from the marine Upper Maikopian deposits of three localities in the Caucasus (SW Russia and Azerbaijan) and Crimea (lower Miocene, lower Burdigalian). Slightly younger gobiiform fossils, often preserved with otoliths in situ, originate from marine sediments of two localities (the Crimea and Krasnodar Region) Tarkha- nian in age (uppermost lower to lowermost middle Miocene) and a locality (in Azerbaijan) of non-subdivided Tarkhanian-Tchokrakian age (lowermost middle Miocene). Several gobiiform fossils were collected in the latter site in a slightly younger brackish-water Karaganian deposits (=middle Miocene, lower Serravalian). The youngest gobiiform fossils of the Eastern Paratethys originate from the marine lower Sarmatian (Volhynian) deposits of the North Caucasus and Re- public of Moldova (middle Miocene, middle to upper Serravalian), from two localities: Pshekha River in Krasnodar Region and Naslavcea in northern Moldova, respectively. The gobiiform fishes vary greatly at the Naslavcea locality in their size and it can be assumed that at least three or four different taxa of gobies were present there.
∗Speaker
Restructuring the gonad: how does a bidirectional hermaphroditic fish undergo
shifts from ova to sperm production
Jessica Maxfield ∗† 1, Kathleen Cole 1
1 University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) – Department of Biology 2538 McCarthy Mall Edmondson Hall 216 Honolulu, HI 96822, United States
Functional hermaphroditism describes the ability to transition between ova and sperm pro- duction at some point in adult life, and has evolved independently numerous times across a broad range of teleost fish taxa. In some groups, such as Labridae, it appears to have evolved just once at the origin of the group. In others, such as the family Gobiidae, it appears to have evolved mul- tiple times. While many aspects of hermaphroditic sexual lability have been explored, we know very little about the gene networks that regulate functional shifts in gamete production. Here we explore the genes responsible for a shift in reproductive function in two bidirectional (multi- ple shifts in gamete production) hermaphroditic gobies,Eviota epiphanes andLythrypnus dalli.
We used whole transcriptome sequencing (RNASeq) to profile all genes being expressed in the gonads during a shift from ova to sperm production. Using this approach we were able to track the up-regulation and down-regulation of genes and gene expression patterns both known to be important in, and not previously associated with, the regulation of vertebrate sexual function.
We have taken a comparative approach by assessing concomitant changes in gonad morphology and gene expression in the transitioning gonad to better understand the mechanisms by which shifts in sexual function occur.
Using exon capture sequencing to determine the population structure of amphidromous
gobies from the genus Stenogobius in the Central Pacific
Kirill Vinnikov ∗† 1, Kathleen Cole 1
1Department of Biology, University of Hawai‘i at Mnoa – 2538 McCarthy Mall, Edmondson Hall 216, Honolulu, HI, USA 96822, United States
A large number of species of indigenous freshwater fish fauna on tropical and subtropical oceanic islands is represented by amphidromous gobies. Amphidromy means that these fishes live and reproduce in freshwater environment but also have a short marine larval stage, which may encourage their extensive dispersal in the Indo-Pacific. High gene flow, if it occurs between island populations, would strongly diminish the rates of their diversification and would preclude an accurate assessment of their population structure using conventional approaches on a small number of genes of interest. The current study is designed to investigate the population structure and larval dispersal patterns of amphidromous gobies from the genus Stenogobius (Teleostei:
Gobiidae), based on a comparison of their exomes. As there is some debate as to the validity of some species, we opted to collect fish and simply designate them by locale rather than a species name. A total of 140 adult fish from 16 stream populations across the Central and Western Pacific Ocean were collected. The collection sites included the Hawaiian, Marquesas, Society and Solomon Islands, and Ambon Island (Indonesia). In order to design the exon capture baits, we first produced a pseudoreference with more than 200,000 contigs by making deep transcriptome sequencing for three individuals of S. hawaiiensis. This pseudoreference was then annotated using SWISSPROT database and reduced to 15,000 long transcripts with known gene function. After testing all transcripts for exon boundaries and splicing events, we randomly selected 17,000 unique exons and designed the bait capture kit to perform the exon capture sequencing of all 140 individuals. For each individual of Stenogobius, we were able to recover more than 20,000 annotated exon regions with 20X average base coverage, half of which were shared among all samples. Shared exons were then aligned and trimmed to produce the final sequence matrix, which we analyzed in STRUCTURE and RAxML. Our preliminary results show a strong divergence between populations of Stenogobius from the different archipelagos.
Moreover, the resulting dataset provides the amount of necessary information for recovering genes under selection and for estimating the larval dispersal pathways.
∗Speaker
†Corresponding author: vinni@hawaii.edu
Wading into the Mud: Phylogeny and Evolution of the Amblyopine Gobies
Zeehan Jaafar ∗ 1, Edward Murdy 2, Lynne Parenti 3
1 National University of Singapore – Department of Biological Sciences, 14 Science Drive 4, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore
2 George Washington University – George Washington University, Washington DC, USA, United States
3National Museum of Natural History – National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution PO Box 37012, MRC 159 Washington, DC 20013-7012, United States
The amblyopine gobies are a poorly-known group of fishes inhabiting muddy substrates.
Twenty-six species in fourteen genera are recognized yet the majority of these taxa are rarely represented in natural history museums. Their elusive nature, and the rarity in collections have hampered our understanding of their biology and affinities. Hypotheses of relationships within the amblyopine gobies, and to other gobioid groups are conflicted and unresolved. We present a hypothesis of the relationships between amblyopine genera, and propose a sister group based on osteology and morphology. Adaptive characters to fossorial behaviour are reviewed in the context of present data, and other published phylogenetic hypotheses.
What is the information of goby otolith morphology?
Christoph Gierl ∗ 1, Bettina Reichenbacher 1
1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Palaeontology Geobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) – Richard-Wagner-Str. 10, 80333 Munich, Germany
Otoliths are small aragonitic structures found in the skull of bony fishes that develop in- dependently of the rest of the skeleton. As components of the inner ear, they contribute to the senses of hearing and balance. Otoliths exhibit a variety of phylogenetically informative features on their inner surface, and morphometric studies allow the identification of a fish down to the species level in many cases. Because preservation of articulated skeletons is extremely rare in the fossil record, palaeontologists have used the much more abundant otoliths for tax- onomic purposes since the 19th century. Consequently, many fossil fish taxa are known solely on the basis of otolith material. However, the identification of fossil otoliths requires a com- prehensive knowledge of otolith characters in different fish groups, which can only be obtained by working with recent material. Using comparative morphology and statistical analyses of morphometric characters, we present a case study of otoliths from the five lineages of the go- biiform family Oxudercidae recognized in previous molecular work: Mugilogobius (represented byBrachygobius xanthozona,Chlamydogobius eremius,Schismatogobius roxasi,S. sadanundio);
Acanthogobius (represented by Rhinogobius candidianus,R. formosanus,R. rubromaculatus,R.
zhoui); Pomatoschistus (represented by Buenia affinis, Gobiusculus flavescens, Knipowitschia croatica, Pomatoschistus marmoratus); Stenogobius (represented by Awaous flavus, Gobioides broussonnetii, Stiphodon atropurpureus); and Periophthalmus (represented by Boleophthalmus dussumieri,Periophthalmus waltoni,Scartelaos tenuis). The results indicate that, while otolith morphology is not distinctive for an individual lineage, it is diagnostic at the level of genera and species. These findings, for the first time, provide a sound framework for the interpreta- tion of fossil otoliths from the Middle Miocene (c. 15 m.y. ago) of Central Europe, for which an Indo-Pacific origin had already been proposed in earlier work. The new data adds to our knowledge of the dispersal of Oxudercidae through time from their putative center of origin in the Indo-West-Pacific.
∗Speaker
B1/ Sustainable pathways in reef fisheries: Maintaining catches and
ecosystem functioning
A vulnerability-based approach to promote synergies in the management of small-scale
fisheries
Lauric Thiault ∗ 1, Paul Marshall 2, Stefan Gelcich 3, Fr´ ed´ erique Chlous 4, Joachim Claudet 1
1 Centre de recherches insulaires et observatoire de l’environnement (CRIOBE) – Universit´e de Perpignan Via Domitia, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique : USR3278 – BP 1013 Papetoiai 98729 PAPETOAI, France
2 Reef Ecologic – Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia
3Centro de Conservaci´on Marina, Departamento de Ecolog´ıa, Pontificia Universidad Cat´olica de Chile (PUC) – Alameda 340, Santiago, Chile, Chile
4 Patrimoines Locaux et Gouvernance (PALOC) – Mus´eum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) – PALOC, UMR208 MNHN-IRD, 75231 Paris, France
It is now widely accepted that natural resource conservation and poverty reduction should be tackled together to sustain small-scale fisheries effectively. However, clear operational schemes are needed if practices in these two areas are to be combined. Building on mature and exten- sive practices in fisheries management and sustainable livelihood approach, and drawing from recent advances in social-ecological science, we use a vulnerability approach as a lens to un- derstand the underlying sources of unsustainability and define a set of targeted management interventions to address linked social-ecological vulnerabilities. Applying the framework to the coral reef small-scale fishery of Moorea, French Polynesia, we show that the ecological entry- point of the current management system is mostly ill-fitted to the great spatial variability in social-ecological vulnerability and is therefore unlikely to provide win-win outcomes. A portfo- lio of interventions combining technical measures and temporal fishing closures in the lagoon, permanent fishing closures on the fore reef, and targeted development actions is recommended to maintain ecosystem functioning and resilience while advancing human well-being in Moorea.
Managing social-ecological systems through the lens of vulnerability enables to better cope with complexities of social-ecological systems than the singular emphasis on threat mitigation or poverty reduction, but will require significant shifts in how institutions approach this issue to be effectively implemented.
∗Speaker
Assessing value of subsea infrastructure for fish and fisheries: informing
decommissioning options
Dianne Mclean ∗ 1, Todd Bond 1, Julian Partridge 1, Susan Gourvenec 1, Tim Langlois 1
1 The University of Western Australia (UWA) – 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley WA 6009, Australia
Large-scale marine infrastructure is a feature of industrial activity in many of the World’s territorial seas, including along the North West Shelf of Western Australia where it is associ- ated with large scale offshore oil and gas production. A full understanding of any potentially positive value of marine infrastructure for fish and fisheries is essential towards the end of its operational life as various decommissioning options are considered. Decommissioning options range from 100% removal to partial removal and relocation (e.g. US ”rigs to reefs” programme) or partial removal and in situ decommissioning. There is also the option to augment infrastruc- ture left in situ with engineered artificial reefs modules to optimise environmental and ecological benefits. Predicting the environmental and ecological consequence of various decommissioning options relies on a regional-specific understanding of the ecological communities that utilise these structures. For the North West Shelf of Western Australia, historically high trawling effort has extensively removed and modified complex epibenthic habitats, negatively impacting valuable commercial fisheries. Recent research into fish-habitat associations on subsea infrastructure in the region suggests that modern pipelines offer hard substrate for the development of epibenthic habitats and refuges for fish, potentially comparable in physical complexity, if not in extent, to the historical habitats lost to trawling. Here, we present the results of the first fish-pipeline stud- ies conducted on the north-west shelf of Western Australia and discuss how these studies can be used to inform discussions regarding the ecological and fisheries implications of decommissioning.
Decadal declines in the small-scale inshore fishery of Pohnpei, Micronesia
Kevin Rhodes ∗ 1, Dalia Hernandez-Ortiz ∗ † 2, Javier Cuetos-Bueno ∗ ‡ 2
1 MarAlliance – 160 Conaway Ave., Grass Valley, CA 95941, United States
2University of Guam (UoG) – UoG Marine Lab, UoG Station, Mangilao, GU 96923, Guam
Over the past half-century, Pacific small-scale inshore fisheries have increasingly shifted from subsistence to commercial activities, however management has rarely kept pace with changing needs. In Pohnpei, Micronesia, a 10-year follow-up market comparison of the commercial inshore fishery identified an increased use of unsustainable fishing methods, shifts in catch composition, a reduction in total marketed volumes, catch-per-unit effort and economic return, and a loss of biodiversity. Overall, marketed coral reef fish volumes declined by 50 mt over the 10-year period, while unsustainable gear use increased by 75.5% to 81.9% of total effort. Nighttime spearfishing now comprises 76% of the fishery. Per-trip volumes increased, but were paralleled by a rise in the average number of fishers per trip. Effort shifted from inner to outer reef areas, with more effort away from high fisher density communities. CPUE declined from 3.4±0.1 to 3.2±0.4 kg hr-1 fisher1, while the economic return as price per unit effort was reduced by nearly half for all gear types. At the family level, increases in the percentage of lower tropic level catch were observed, with acanthurids now comprising 34% of total catch and Lined surgeonfish,Acanthu- rus lineatus now representing 15% of all catch among targeted species. The only increase in percent yield among top carnivores was for epinephelids, however the most commonly targeted grouper, Camouflage grouper,Epinephelus polyphekadion, was comprised of 54% juveniles, with aggregation densities declining by 82%. Wholly eight epinephelids present in 2006 were absent in catch in 2015. An ecological footprint analyses in 2014 showed the inshore fishery now 300%
over biocapacity, while catch data in 2015 showed dedicated targeting of spawning aggrega- tions of a range of species. The results highlight the outcome of a commercialized small-scale fisheries operating under a management and enforcement void, which is now threatening fish- eries, ecosystem health and economic security. To reverse declines, dramatic political and social changes are needed with a strong emphasis on eliminating the use of nighttime spearfishing and de-commercialization of the inshore sector.
∗Speaker
†Corresponding author: daliaxhernandez@gmail.com
‡Corresponding author: javiercuetos@gmail.com