Atlas of Myctophids from the Southern Indian Ocean and around the subantarctic islands of Crozet and Kerguelen
This paper summarises myctophid distribution from surveys from the Crozet to Kerguelen regions of the Southern Indian Ocean. These fish play a crucial role in the marine ecosystem trophic web as they are important prey for seabirds and marine mammals. This study integrates both the subtropical and Southern Ocean species from surveys from 2017 to 2019. In these surveys, 62 species of myctophids were observed across different oceanographic regions from the subtropical zone to the Subantarctic and the Antarctic zone. These species exhibited high abundances in the Southern Ocean, with concentrated patches in the Subantarctic zone between the Crozet and Kerguelen archipelagos, as well as the eastern part of the Kerguelen Plateau. The fronts at the northern boundary of the Southern Ocean explained the separation of subtropical and Subantarctic faunas.