BIOLOGIYA MORYA, 2016, Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 381-386

Elemental composition of the swimbladder wall in some deep-water fishes of the North Atlantic

© 2016 A. M. Orlov^{1, 2, 3}, R. V. Artemov¹, S. Yu. Orlova¹

¹Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, Moscow 107140;
²A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow 119071;
³Dagestan State University, Makhachkala 367000

E-mail:

The first data on the elemental contents of the swimbladder wall of three deep-water fish species from the North Atlantic (the snubnosed spiny eel Notacanthus chemnitzii, the Kaup's arrowtooth eel Synaphobranchus kaupii, and the roughhead grenadier Macrourus berglax) are presented. It is supposed that the survival of specimens of the first two species, when lifting from great depths and thus subjected to sharp changes in pressure, is connected with the properties of the durable and flexible swimbladder walls with increased contents of some metals (aluminum, copper, iron, mercury, potassium, manganese, chromium, and cadmium). Adaptation to sharp changes of pressure in N. chemnitzii and S. kaupii has probably developed during ontogeny - at transition from habitation in the epipelagial zone during larval stage to deep-water habitat of adult fish.

Key words: elemental composition, swimbladder, snubnosed spiny eel Notacanthus chemnitzii, Kaup's arrowtooth eel Synaphobranchus kaupii, roughhead grenadier Macrourus berglax, North Atlantic.