Ichthyoplankton and euphausiids off the Peruvian coast in autumn 2015

Abstract

In autumn 2015, zooplankton biovolumes varied between 0.1 and 25.0 mL/ sample, the most frequent and least valuable ones between 0.1 and 5.0 mL/sample (54.29%) and the least frequent ones (5.71%) were greater than 20.1 mL/sample, located mainly between Chicama and Salaverry. The species Euphausia lamelligera (Hansen); Nyctiphanes simplex (Hansen), and Stylocheiron sp., were the most representative euphausiids in the perivitelline, furcilia, and juvenile stages. In ichthyoplankton, a total of 32 species belonging to 44 families were determined, the most frequent and abundant being Engraulidae (33%) and Phosichthyidae (27%). Engraulis ringens (Jenyns) was the most abundant with values of 3 to 14,304 eggs/ m² and 3 to 975 larvae/m². Eggs and larvae of Merluccius gayi peruanus (Guichenot) were recorded south of Salaverry.