The biology of Boopsoidea inornata (Castelnau, 1861) and life history comparisons within the Sparidae
type: CreativeWork
description: South African marine ichthyofauna has remarkable diversity across a range of biogeographic zones from cold-temperate to subtropical. Two families stand out here, both with high diversity and high rates of endemism to the region, namely Sparidae and Clinidae. The Sparidae are of greater interest because of their commercial importance, and conversely, their conservation status. Several are listed as threatened by the IUCN. The Sparidae is also the family with the greatest plasticity in life history characteristics of any vertebrate family, as they include gonochorism, rudimentary hermaphrodites, and both kinds of sequential hermaphrodites. Life history characteristics are known determinants of the resilience of fish species to fishing, and more generally of their response, either positive or negative, to any form of disturbance. Life history characteristics of most of the species of Sparidae, in South Africa and worldwide, have been studied, particularly those of commercial and conservation importance. Omissions include those that are small, with little commercial importance. This is an oversight, as there is much to be learned about life history strategies by studying the full spectrum of variation in the family, and particularly those variants which produce numerically, and therefore ecologically, significant population sizes. In this thesis, I study the life history and parasite community of one of South Africa’s most abundant seabreams in separate chapters. In the last chapter I take a fresh perspective on life history variation among fishes, by comparing four sympatric seabreams to describe the several dimensions along which life history trade-offs can occur without the confounding influences of environment and phylogeny. Boopsoidea inornata (Castelnau, 1861) is endemic to South Africa. Eight hundred and seventeen fishes were sampled from four locations: False Bay, Struisbaai, Goukamma and Port Elizabeth from 2012 to 2014. They ranged in size from 130 to 310 mm f…
abstract: South African marine ichthyofauna has remarkable diversity across a range of biogeographic zones from cold-temperate to subtropical. Two families stand out here, both with high diversity and high rates of endemism to the region, namely Sparidae and Clinidae. The Sparidae are of greater interest because of their commercial importance, and conversely, their conservation status. Several are listed as threatened by the IUCN. The Sparidae is also the family with the greatest plasticity in life history characteristics of any vertebrate family, as they include gonochorism, rudimentary hermaphrodites, and both kinds of sequential hermaphrodites. Life history characteristics are known determinants of the resilience of fish species to fishing, and more generally of their response, either positive or negative, to any form of disturbance. Life history characteristics of most of the species of Sparidae, in South Africa and worldwide, have been studied, particularly those of commercial and conservation importance. Omissions include those that are small, with little commercial importance. This is an oversight, as there is much to be learned about life history strategies by studying the full spectrum of variation in the family, and particularly those variants which produce numerically, and therefore ecologically, significant population sizes. In this thesis, I study the life history and parasite community of one of South Africa’s most abundant seabreams in separate chapters. In the last chapter I take a fresh perspective on life history variation among fishes, by comparing four sympatric seabreams to describe the several dimensions along which life history trade-offs can occur without the confounding influences of environment and phylogeny. Boopsoidea inornata (Castelnau, 1861) is endemic to South Africa. Eight hundred and seventeen fishes were sampled from four locations: False Bay, Struisbaai, Goukamma and Port Elizabeth from 2012 to 2014. They ranged in size from 130 to 310 mm f…
author: Ensair, Hend Assiad M
keywords: Biological Science
date published: 2019
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:41Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Biological Sciences

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property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31412