Description
Dongsha Atoll, situated in the northern part of the South China Sea, is surrounded by coral reefs and deep-sea habitats. The coastal areas of the atoll, a marine protected area, serve as important nursery habitats for many reef fish species. At the same time, the offshore deep-sea continental slopes are historically important fishing grounds. Although previous inventories primarily focused on coral reef fishes within the atolls listing 340 species in 99 families, comprehensive surveys of fishes from deeper waters have been incomplete. In this study, we aim to update the species composition of fish fauna around Dongsha Island by analyzing large volumes of frozen bycatch from commercial deep-sea trawlers operating in the area for three years and reviewing the existing literature. We updated the new occurrences of 137 species belonging to 90 families, including potentially undescribed species. This dataset will assist further taxonomic works and significantly enhance the understanding of marine biodiversity in the South China Sea.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 137 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Lin C, Wu S (2024): An updated checklist of fishes of Dongsha Island, Taiwan, northern South China Sea. v1.3. Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Dataset/Occurrence. https://ipt.taibif.tw/resource?r=dongsha_checklist&v=1.3
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: e958dd2e-6734-43c8-842b-18074cf64dab. Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility.
Keywords
Occurrence; Ichthyofauna; Ichthyology; Pratas Island; Taxonomy; Specimen
Contacts
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9843-9729
- Metadata Provider ●
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Geographic Coverage
Dongsha Island (also known as Dongsha Atoll or Pratas Island) is situated on the northern margin of the South China Sea; it is located at the midpoint between Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Luzon.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [18.82, 112.77], North East [20.82, 116.25] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
We updated the new occurrences of 137 species belonging to 90 families, including potentially undescribed species.
| Class | Chondrichthyes, Actinopterygii, Myxini, Elasmobranchii |
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Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2021-02-18 / 2024-04-25 |
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Sampling Methods
Commercial bottom trawlers operated in the waters off Dongsha Island at depths of around 300 to 600 meters (coordinates 18°49' to 20°45'N and 112°46 to 116°15'E). From February to early July each year from 2021 to 2024, we obtained frozen samples from fishermen at Zhengbin fish port in Keelung, Taiwan. These samples mainly consisted of fishes and other invertebrates and weighed approximately 30 kg each. The total samples (n = 198) we processed collectively weighed over 5,000 kg.
| Study Extent | Our study used two distinct datasets: occurrence records from the literature on coral and seagrass-associated shallow-water fishes and newly collected occurrence data from deep-water fishes sampled via commercial bottom trawlers. Both datasets represent different ecological settings with distinct sampling techniques. For the former, we reviewed existing literature and validated nomenclatures. |
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Method step description:
- Our samplings were conducted bi-monthly, and selections were made to represent as diverse a range as possible of the catch. These samples were then transferred to our lab and defrosted sequentially. These otoliths were coated with a thin layer of gold using an ion sputter machine (MCM-100P, Sec, South Korea) to enhance the visibility of the sulcus. Additionally, for small-sized otoliths, images were captured using a scanning electron microscope (JSM-7100FLV, Jeol, Japan). Otoliths were archived at the marine paleontology lab, Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, registered under the code CHLOL.
Collection Data
| Collection Name | Chien-Hsiang Lin Otolith (CHLOL) |
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| Specimen preservation methods | Alcohol, Dried |
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Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | e958dd2e-6734-43c8-842b-18074cf64dab |
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| https://ipt.taibif.tw/resource?r=dongsha_checklist |