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First record of Acanthurus monroviae (Osteichthyes: Perciformes: Acanthuridae) in southern Portugal, with notes on its recent distributional spread in the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean

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Abstract

The present study reports the first record of the Monrovia doctorfish, Acanthurus monroviae (Steindachner, 1876) in the Algarve coast (southern Portugal). A female (257 mm TL) was caught 21 April 2016 off the beach of Olhos d’Água by a small-scale fishing boat operating bottom-set gill nets at approximately 15 m depth. Morphometric and meristic parameters of the specimen are reported and compared with previous records of A. monroviae. This is the second occurrence of this tropical fish species in Portuguese waters and the second northernmost capture ever reported for the northeastern Atlantic. The present record is an additional example of tropicalisation of the ichthyofauna in temperate waters by a thermophilic tropical species. Indeed, although not established in the study area, A. monroviae found a suitable seawater temperature regime in southern Portugal and further expanded its distributional range along the Iberian coasts. For biogeographic purposes, all reported occurrences of this species in the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean (including very recent records and sightings) are compiled and mapped.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Mr. Paulo Jorge Pinto da Piedade, owner and skipper of the fishing boat“Adelino Tranel (vessel registration: Q-1111-L), who caught and kindly offered the fish specimen to the IPMA–Olhão. The first author (Paulo Vasconcelos) was funded by a post-doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/26348/2006) awarded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT–Portugal). The authors acknowledge the Associate Editor of Marine Biodiversity (Prof. Ralf Thiel) and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and suggestions that improved the revised version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), Avenida 5 de Outubro s/n, 8700-305, Olhão, Portugal

    Paulo Vasconcelos, André N. Carvalho, Paula Moura & Miguel B. Gaspar

  2. Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar (CESAM), Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Paulo Vasconcelos

  3. Câmara Municipal de Loulé, Equipa de Projecto da Economia Local, Comércio e Turismo, Praça da República, 8104-001, Loulé, Portugal

    José Ramos

  4. Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal

    Miguel B. Gaspar

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  1. Paulo Vasconcelos
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  2. André N. Carvalho
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Correspondence to Paulo Vasconcelos.

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Communicated by R. Thiel

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Vasconcelos, P., Carvalho, A.N., Moura, P. et al. First record of Acanthurus monroviae (Osteichthyes: Perciformes: Acanthuridae) in southern Portugal, with notes on its recent distributional spread in the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. Mar Biodiv 48, 1673–1681 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-017-0653-z

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