Análise multivariada da forma do otólito sagita para discriminação de estoques de dourado, Coryphaena hippurus (Pisces: Coryphaenidae), no Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

The otolith shape of dolphinfish, C. Hippurus, was studied to verify the hypotheses of two stocks in the northeastern Brazilian coast. Eighty two sagittal otoliths were collected from specimens caught by the artisanal fleet in two regions of northestern Brazil (Maranhão – MA and Rio Grande do Norte – RN coasts), in December of 2003 and April to May of 2004, respectively. Several types of shape descriptors were taken (area, perimeter, rectangularity, circularity, eccentricity, fractal dimension and Fourier coeficients) to evaluate the similarity level between regions. Differences between left and rigth otoliths and by sex were not found in the sample. Cluster and principal components (PC) analyses, based in the Fourier coeficients of 30th harmonics, revealed a three morfotypes pattern, concerning general differences of otolith shape. This pattern is supposed to be influenced by genetic factors, according to ANOVA results among the six signicant PC, regardless clinal variation between samples. When the two geographical regions were compared, significants differences were found in the otolith structure using both MANOVA and ANOVA, for all shape descriptors. Canonical discriminant analysis suggested the separation of the two regions samples, with a sucess classification of 57,1% for MA and 69,6% for RN, despite the high variability among otoliths shapes. The fractal dimension was a powerful descriptor to discriminate the two samples in this work, since the significance in all cases and high DSC value. Differencesin sagittal otoliths shape, possibly are due to different growth rates, added evidences to confirm the two stocks hypotheses of C. hippurus along the Brazilian coast.