Composition and temporal fluctuations of ichthyoplankton community in the Kornati archipelago and Murter sea, eastern Adriatic

Temporal fluctuations of species composition and abundance of fish larvae i n the Kornati archipelago and Murter Sea were studied over 12 months from J anuary to December 1990 from seven stations. A total of 2145 larvae, repres enting 28 families and 52 species, were collected using two types of plankt on nets on each station, "Helgoland" and "Bongo". The community was dominat ed numerically by a few species: Sardina pilchardus (29.2 %), Engraulis enc rasicolus (28.7 %), Serranus hepatus (7.5 %), Sarpa salpa (5.2 %), and Cepo la rubescens (4.7 %), constituting 75.3 % of the total catch. Similarity be tween patterns in the abundance of the 11 most common species were examined using correlation matrix-based principal component analysis. Results were compared to the abiotic factors leading conclusion that only a low amount o f variation in the abundance field can be explained by temperature and sali nity.