Otolith morphogenesis during the early life stages of fish is temperature-dependent: Validation by experimental approach applied to European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax).

Otolith shape is often used as a tool in fish stock identification. The goal of this study was to experimentally assess the influence of changing temperature and ontogenic evolution on the shape component of the European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) otolith during early-life stages. A total of 1079 individuals were reared in a water temperature of 16°C up to 232 days post hatch (dph). During this experiment, several specimens were transferred into tanks with a water temperature of 21°C to obtain at the end of this study four different temperature treatments, each with varying ratios between the number of days at 16 and 21°C. To evaluate the otolith morphogenesis, samples were examined at 43, 72, 86 and 100 dph. The evolution of normalized otolith shape from hatching up to 100 dph showed that there were two main successive changes. First, faster growth in the antero-posterior axis than in the dorso-ventral axis changed the circular-shaped otolith from that observed at hatching and, second, increasing the complexity relating to the area between the rostrum and the anti-rostrum. To test the effect of changing temperature, growing degree-day was used in three linear mixed-effect models. Otolith morphogenesis was positively correlated to growing degree-day, but was also dependent on temperature level. Otolith shape is influenced by environmental factors, particularly temperature, making it an efficient tool for fish stock identification.