Abstract: Antarctic icefish plays a significant role in the matter cycle and energy flow for Antarctic ecosystem. As a “white blood” fish, its scientific significance and commercial value has been concerned worldwide, but there exist many uncertainties in studies on age and growth of Antarctic icefish. Therefore, the present paper reviewed the research progress of age and growth of Antarctic icefish over the past 50 years, and summarized its classification and general geographical distribution in the Antarctic waters. Based on summarizing the basic methods on age and growth of Antarctic icefish, including length frequency analysis and analysis on calcified structures, this paper put the emphases on processing and estimating the otolith of Antarctic icefish species, and summarized age estimation, morphological feature and microstructure of otolith though preprocessing (direct observation, burning, and sectioning and polishing) of otolith and ring identification on sectioned otolith. Through summarizing the problems and deficiencies, such as the processing of juveniles’ otolith and forming time of first ring, on age and growth estimation of Antarctic icefish species, future research directions were prospected.

Key words: forest aboveground biomass, LANDIS, climate warming, fire disturbance, Great Xing’an Mountains.