School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University College Cork, Enterprise Centre, North Mall, Distillery Fields, Cork, Ireland.
ALNILAM Research and Conservation Ltd, Pradillos 29, 28491, Navacerrada, Madrid, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2017 May 17;7(1):2025. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-02103-6.
The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, is the largest teleost fish in the world. Despite being found in all oceans of the world, little is known about its abundance and factors driving its distribution. In this study we provide the first abundance estimates for sunfish in offshore waters in the northeast Atlantic and the first record of extensive sunfish presence in these waters year-round. Abundance estimates and predictive distributions for sunfish in approximately 300,000 km² of the northeast Atlantic were derived from large scale offshore aerial surveys in 2015-2016 using distance sampling techniques. Generalized additive models of sunfish density were fitted to survey data from 17,360 km of line transect effort resulting in minimum abundance estimates of 12,702 (CI: 9,864-16,357) in the summer (Density = 0.043 ind/km²) and 8,223 individuals (CI: 6,178-10,946) (Density = 0.028 ind/km²) in the winter. Density surface models predicted seasonal shifts in distribution and highlighted the importance of the mixed layer depth, possibly related to thermoregulation following deep foraging dives. The abundance estimate and estimated daily consumption of 2,600 tonnes of jellyfish in the northeast Atlantic highlights the need to re-assess the importance of this species in the pelagic ecosystem, and its role in top-down control of jellyfish blooms.
翻车鱼，Mola mola，是世界上最大的硬骨鱼。尽管在世界各大洋都有发现，但人们对其丰度及其分布驱动因素知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们首次提供了东北大西洋近海海域翻车鱼丰度的估计值，也是首次记录了全年都有大量翻车鱼在这些水域出没。我们使用距离抽样技术，根据 2015 年至 2016 年期间进行的大规模近海航空调查，对东北大西洋约 30 万平方公里的海域进行了估算，得出了翻车鱼的丰度预测分布。对 17360 公里的线样带调查数据进行了翻车鱼密度广义加性模型拟合，得出夏季最小丰度估计值为 12702 条（置信区间：9864-16357）（密度=0.043 条/km²）和冬季最小丰度估计值为 8223 条（置信区间：6178-10946）（密度=0.028 条/km²）。密度表面模型预测了分布的季节性变化，并强调了混合层深度的重要性，这可能与深海觅食潜水后的体温调节有关。东北大西洋 2600 吨水母的估计丰度和估计日消耗量突出表明，需要重新评估该物种在海洋生态系统中的重要性，以及其在水母爆发的顶级控制中的作用。
