Otolith Application in Fish: Latest Developments and Emerging Trends

Dear Colleagues,

Freshwater and marine fish stocks are facing a drastic decline worldwide. Understanding the factors affecting their stock is vital to tackle the severe loss of fish. Otoliths record a remarkable amount of information about the life history traits of fish and the environments they are living in. The information extracted from otoliths is more precise and accurate than the information obtained from other calcified structures, due to their continuous growth even as body growth slows and asymptotic length is reached, they are metabolically inert and not subject to resorption, otolith growth varies between seasons leading to the formation of annual increments that can be used for age estimation, and annuli reabsorption does not appear to occur during periods of food limitation or stress. Otolith application is not only important for life history traits estimation (e.g., age, and growth parameters) but also for evaluating environmental stress, connectivity, migration patterns, habitat use, characterizing food webs and trophic interactions, and stock discrimination. As such, its application is contributing to sustainable and effective fisheries management. Despite that otolith analysis is a crucial tool for fish ecologists seeking to study how harvesting and global change impact fish health and fisheries productivity, its application, especially otolith chemistry, is limited. I am therefore pleased to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue “Otolith Application in Fish: Latest Developments and Emerging Trends” in the Fishes journal.

Dr. Shewit Gebremedhin
Dr. Fasil Taddese
Dr. Josipa Ferri
Dr. Gioele Capillo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fishes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• fish age and growth
• fisheries management
• otoliths chemistry
• fish stock