Ichthyoplankton in the netritic and coastal zone of Antarctica and Subantarctic islands : A review,
Résumé
Since the article published by Loeb et al. [Loeb, V.J., Kellermann, A., Koubbi, P., North, A.W., White, M., 1993.
Antarctic larval fish assemblages: a review. Bull. Mar. Sci. 53(2), 416–449.] about Antarctic ichthyoplankton,
many surveys were carried out in different sectors of the Southern Ocean focusing on different aspects of the
ecology of fish larvae. Some of these researches were conducted in the Subantarctic Kerguelen Islands and
others on the continental shelf off Terre Adélie and Georges V land. Oceanographic and geographic features
influence fish larvae ecology such as island mass effects, gyres, canyons. Antarctic fishes show also temporal
segregation of spawning which induces temporal succession of early stage larvae. This avoids competition
and probably the predation on early stages for species having few recruits. In that case, we have to
understand how these larvae can deal with the match–mismatch with their preys and how they find
sufficient food to survive. But our knowledge on Antarctic fish larvae is still insufficient as we do not know
larvae for quite a lot of species and because of the difficulty to sample during winter.