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Evaluating ecosystem structure and functioning of the East China Sea Shelf ecosystem, China

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Abstract

As China’s second-largest large marine ecosystem, the East China Sea Shelf has suffered from overfishing, eutrophication, and physical disturbance over the last several decades. A trophic mass-balance model of this ecosystem was developed in order to characterize the structure and functioning of its food web, to identify its keystone species, and to quantify the ecological impacts of fishing that it sustained during the early 2000s. Using a multivariate statistical analysis, we identified 38 functional groups for the trophic model, including fish and invertebrate groups targeted and not targeted by fisheries. Pelagic sharks and rays were identified as the keystone species in the ecosystem. Strong benthic–pelagic coupling was indicated in this ecosystem. In particular, this study highlighted the interdependent relationships that exist among plankton, benthic invertebrates, and detritus. Recent fishing activities were characterized by high exploitation rates for various commercially targeted and non-targeted species, leading to the removal of much of the ecosystem’s fishable production. Overall, our findings give a preliminary explanation of the current problems of eutrophication and fishery depletion and other changes in the East China Sea Shelf, and highlight the need for developing ecosystem-based fisheries management.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Cameron Ainsworth in the UBC Fishery Center, for his enthusiastic help with the questions and his support in the model construction and uncertainty analysis. We thank Dr. Simone Libralato for giving advice on keystone species identification. We thank Dr. Shengfa Li from the East China Sea Fishery Research Institute for providing some of the data. The authors also thank the two anonymous referees for their constructive comments. Yunkai Li was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, the Shanghai Education Commission Foundation for Excellent Young High Education Teacher of China, and Key Project of Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission (Grant #08DZ1203101, #08DZ1203102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Science, East China Normal University, 200062, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Yunkai Li, Na Yu & Liqiao Chen

  2. The Key Laboratory of Sustainable Exploitation of Oceanic Fisheries Resources, Ministry of Education, Shanghai Ocean University, 201306, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Yunkai Li & Yong Chen

  3. School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469, USA

    Yunkai Li, Yong Chen & Derek Olson

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  1. Yunkai Li
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Correspondence to Liqiao Chen.

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Li, Y., Chen, Y., Olson, D. et al. Evaluating ecosystem structure and functioning of the East China Sea Shelf ecosystem, China. Hydrobiologia 636, 331–351 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-009-9964-9

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