ABSTRACT

Studies on the vertical distribution of larval fish in water masses along the Brazilian coast are very rare. The present study aimed to identify larval fish occurring in the surface (1 m) layer and at depth in four water masses of the Campos Basin, southeastern Brazil: South Atlantic Central Water (SACW) (250 m), Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) (800 m), Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW) (1,200 m) and North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) (2,300 m). Material used in this study was obtained in 2009 through nocturnal horizontal stratified hauls using a Multinet (500 μm mesh size) during both rainy (February to April) and dry periods (August to September). A total of 10,978 fish larvae comprising 169 taxa were identified during the rainy (n = 6,015) and dry (n = 4,963) periods. The number of taxa decreased as the sampling depth increased. Larvae of Clupeidae, Engraulidae and Scombridae dominated in samples collected in the surface layer, while Sternoptychidae and Myctophidae were the most representative families in SACW. The other three water masses were dominated by Gonostomatidae larvae.

This study analyzes the occurrence and distribution of lanternfish (Myctophidae) larvae along the Brazilian coast (12-22ºS) between 200 m and the surface. Three cruises were conducted during the spring/1998, winter/1999 and autumn/2000. A total of 3,394 lanternfish larvae were identified representing 27 species and Lepidophanes guentheri (Goode & Bean, 1896) was the most abundant. Most of the identified taxa were in the postflexion stage. Myctophid larvae were more numerous during the winter. Most taxa were distributed widely from 12-22ºS, including some seamounts, and occurred mainly outside the 1,000 m isobath. Although there was no difference in the myctophid community among the coastal, oceanic and seamount regions it was significantly different during the three seasons. During the spring and autumn Hygophum reinhardtii (Lütken, 1892) was the discriminating species while in the winter there were more L. guentheri

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