A database of marine larval fish assemblages in Australian temperate and subtropical waters

Larval fishes are a useful metric of marine ecosystem state and change, as well as species-specific patterns inphenology. The high level of taxonomic expertise required to identify larval fishes to species level, and theconsiderable effort required to collect samples, make these data very valuable. Here we collate 3178 samplesof larval fish assemblages, from 12 research projects from 1983-present, from temperate and subtropicalAustralian pelagic waters. This forms a benchmark for the larval fish assemblage for the region, and includesrecent monitoring of larval fishes at coastal oceanographic reference stations. Comparing larval fishes amongprojects can be problematic due to differences in taxonomic resolution, and identifying all taxa to species ischallenging, so this study reports a standard taxonomic resolution (of 218 taxa) for this region to help guidefuture research. This larval fish database serves as a data repository for surveys of larval fish assemblages in theregion, and can contribute to analysis of climate-driven changes in the location and timing of the spawning ofmarine fishes