Age composition of Ariidae catfish from a macrotidal estuarine system on the Brazilian coast

• Grant number: 25/03869-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Fishery Resources and Fishery Engineering - Marine Fishing Resources
• Principal Investigator: Juliana de Souza Azevedo
• Grantee: Clarice Menegatti Gaia
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The study of growth involves determining body size as a function of age. For this purpose, the analysis of age rings in calcified structures such as the otoliths of bony fish is an efficient and robust method. The Paciência River Estuarine System (PRES), in Maranhão, is an estuary subject to macrotidal regimes, with artisanal fishing as the main economic activity in the municipality of Raposa. This study aims to determine the age and some growth parameters of five species of estuarine catfishes that are important for local fishing (Aspistor quadriscutis, Arius proops, Arius rugispinis, Bagre bagre and Cathorops spixii), based on the analysis of the age rings on the lapillus otoliths. Thus, the aim of this proposal is to verify changes in somatic indices and determine the age of individuals by counting the age rings on the otoliths of specimens, and to evaluate these data on a space-time scale in association with biomarker data previously obtained by the working group. With this data, it will be possible to make more assertive inferences as to the possible processes of exposure to xenobiotics by life stages to which the fish are subjected in the PRES.