Refereed journal article or data article (A1)
Varying frequency of vateritic otoliths in the Baltic herring
List of Authors: Mäkinen Katja, Rajasilta Marjut, Mäkilä Ermei, Jokinen Sami, Hänninen Jari
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Publication year: 2022
Journal: Journal of Fish Biology
Journal acronym: J. Fish Biol.
eISSN: 1095-8649
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15127
URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jfb.15127
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9541912/
We report observations of vateritic crystallization in the sagittal otoliths of the Baltic herring Clupea harengus membras in the northern Baltic Sea. While the existence of vaterite in the calcium carbonate matrix of sagittal otoliths has been observed in various species globally, reports from the brackish Baltic Sea are few in number. Large variation in the frequency of vaterite in 1984, 1988, 1997, 2010 and 2017 was observed, suggesting that the phenomenon is not static and more long-term studies should be conducted in search of the ultimate causing factors.