DISCRIMINATION OF INVASIVE FISH ATHERINA BOYERI (PISCES: ATHERINIDAE) POPULATIONS BY EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF OTOLITH MORPHOMETRICS IN SEVERAL LENTIC HABITATS

Abstract

Ecological factors affect many animals, especially the aquatic animals that are highly dependent on the living environment. Atherina boyeri are accidentally introduced to rivers, lakes, and reservoirs in Turkey and the invasive fish species pose to threats lentic, lotic ecosystems, habitats or species. Their unique features make it easy to adapt to different habitats and ecological conditions. Invasive species may lead to changes in biological attributes and bio-diversity; therefore, identification of the non-indigenous fish populations is quite important in the fisheries management. In the current study, morphometric otolith characters such as length, weight, perimeter, width, area, aspect ratio, roundness, circularity, rectangularity, ellipticity and form factor were investigated in order to discriminate invasive A. boyeri populations from Hirfanli Dam Lake, Lake Iznik, and Lake Egirdir (Turkey). The overall classification score was determined as 92.0% by of the Canonical Discriminant Analysis for A. boyeri populations. The lowest and highest classification scores were detected for Iznik (87.7%) and Egirdir (94.6%) populations, respectively. The otolith morphometrics can provide easy and reliable discrimination tool for the invasive fish populations.