Individual back-calculated size-at-age based on otoliths from Pacific coral reef fish species

Abstract

AbstractSomatic growth is a critical biological trait for organismal, population, and ecosystem-level processes. Due to its direct link with energetic demands, growth also represents an important parameter to estimate energy and nutrient fluxes. For marine fishes, growth rate information is most frequently derived from sagittal otoliths, and most of the available data stems from studies on temperate species that are targeted by commercial fisheries. Although the analysis of otoliths is a powerful tool to estimate individual growth, the time-consuming nature of otolith processing is one barrier for collection of comprehensive datasets across multiple species. This is especially true for coral reef fishes, which are extremely diverse. Here, we provide back-calculated size-at-age estimates (including measures of uncertainty) based on sagittal otoliths from 710 individuals belonging to 45 coral reef fish species from French Polynesia. In addition, we provide Von Bertalanffy growth parameters which are useful to predict community level biomass production.