Resumen del producto

The Gulf of California has one of the most diver se ichthyofauna in the region of the Eastern Pacific. Between 850 to 900 species have been described within its different environments. The Gulf of California also shows an endemism of al most 10% of the total number of species. For this reason the Gulf of California has been considered as a biogeographic province apart from the Mexican Province, which is lo ca ted to the south. It is al so a key region from the biogeographic point of view in order to understand the processes and causes of fish distribution. The high productivity of the Gulf of California supports many local fisheries that have increased their fishing effort without any evaluation studies from which a sustainable use of the sea resources can be achived. In addition, the human population growth on the gulf mar gins has allegedly provoked changes of the marine ecosystems, while pollution in bays and estuaries which are key places for the re productive cycles of many fish species is al so a factor that has not to be taken lightly. The importance of ichthyoplanktonic studies depends on the fact that this is the most vulnerable stage on the life cycle of fishes. Therefore, the success of recruitment to the adult populations depends on the larval survival. Also, the presence of eggs and fish larvae are in direct indicators of reproductive events which, in turn, help to determine reproduction areas and periods that assist in the evaluation of fisheries resources and helps to understand how environment affects their distribution and abundance. All of this are essential indicators that contribute in decisions making on the adequate management of the fisheries resources and on the protection of key areas during the reproduction and early developing stages of many commercial species. Although studies concerning to the early stages of development of fishes have increased in the last years, the main limitation is the recognition of eggs and larvae of each species due to the scarcity of taxonomic information for most of the study species. Latest estimations state that form al recognizef fish species in the world only 10% ot their larvae have been described. In the Gulf of California this proportion is lower since most of the studies describing larvae refers to higher latitudes fishes. in the tropics only 4% have been described. The Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR-IPN) has conducted a great deal of oceanographic surveys in the Gulf of California in which ichthyoplanlton samples have been taken since 1984. This research effort has yielded into description of larvae from tongue fishes, flat fishes, mojarras, groupers and other regional species that have concluded in the elaboration of this atlas. With this fish larvae distribution atlas, useful information is made available to those researchers studying the marine resources in the Gulf of California.

Palabras clave: Fish larvae; Specialist

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