Upgrading the Larval Fish Archive

对世界海洋鱼类种群感兴趣的海洋生物学家最重要的任务之一是了解鱼类是如何分布的，鱼类是如何在海洋环境的紧急情况下生存的，以及鱼类种群的丰度是如何调节的。这个问题的核心是全面了解鱼的生活史中最脆弱的阶段：它的幼虫期。该项目涉及世界上记录最好、数量最多的大西洋幼鱼，收集时间超过20年。因此，这个研究集合代表了一个非常宝贵的研究资源，因为来自美国、加拿大和欧洲的许多科学家将依赖于它作为持续的参考。因为这些标本是在很长一段时间内收集的，它将给科学家们一个独特的机会来研究物种组成和丰度本质上的根本变化。这种变化可能与各种环境因素有关，并将使渔业生物学家能够预测具有重要商业价值的鱼类数量的变化。由于鱼类幼虫表现出许多生物学家研究各种器官系统发育模式感兴趣的特征，这些收集将在提供鱼类必要的发育阶段方面发挥关键作用，而这些鱼类只有经过广泛和昂贵的海洋探索才能获得。鱼苗是浮游动物的重要组成部分，其分布模式反映了主要洋流及其动态。收集幼鱼将间接地帮助海洋学家从历史角度了解浮游动物分布的动态。

One of the most important tasks for marine biologists interested in fish populations in the world's oceans is to understand how fish species become distributed, how fishes survive the exingencies of marine environments, and how the abundances of fish populations are regulated. At the center of this problem is comprehensive knowledge of the most vulnerable stage in the life history of a fish: its larval form. This project deals with the world's best documented and largest collection of larval fishes of the Atlantic Ocean, collected over two decades. As such, this research collection represents a very valuable research resource, since numerous scientists from the U.S.A., Canada and Europe will depend on it for continuous reference. Because the collection was made over such a long period of time, it will give scientists a unique opportunity to study fundamental changes in the nature of speciescomposition and abundance. Such changes may be related to various environmental factors and will enable fishery biologists to anticipate changes in the abundance of commercially important fishes. Because fish larvae exhibit numerous features of interest to biologists studying the developmental patterns of various organ systems, the collection will play a key role in furnishing the necessary developmental stages of fish species which are not accessible without extensive and costly oceanic exploration. Fish larvae form a significant component of the zooplankton and their distributional patterns reflect major oceancurrents and their dynamics. The larval fish collection will indirectly aid oceanographers with a historical perspective of the dynamics of zooplankton distributions.