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Seasonal copepod dynamics and biomass in Harima-Nada, eastern Seto Inland Sea, Japan

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Abstract

Copepods play an important role in marine ecosystems as key prey species of important commercial fishes. However, there is very limited data for the Seto Inland Sea, especially after the late 1990s. In the present study, we described the abundance and biomass of copepods over a 3-year period in Harima-Nada, eastern Seto Inland Sea, Japan. In Harima-Nada, the dominant species were Paracalanus spp., Oithona spp., and Microsetella spp. by abundance of both nauplii and copepodites. In terms of biomass, Paracalanus spp. and Microsetella spp. dominated with Calanus sinicus instead of Oithona spp. Copepod adult assemblages based on body carbon weight were classified into three seasonal clusters. The representative species of each cluster were Microsetella norvegica, Paracalanus parvus s.l., and C. sinicus for groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. It was considered that the copepod nauplii densities of Harima-Nada are insufficient to saturate the survival rate of Japanese anchovy larvae. The biomass of dominant copepods seems to be almost the same as previous studies, but C. sinicus, which is representative of group 3 and an important prey item for the sand lance, is expected to become more unstable in the future.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to emeritus professor Hiroshi Ueda of Kochi University for his valuable advice on our research. We also thank the captain and crew of the R/V Shin-Hyogo and researchers of the Fisheries Technology Institute, Hyogo Prefectural Technology Center for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for their cooperation in sampling and measurement of water samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fisheries Technology Institute, Hyogo Prefectural Technology Center for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Minami-Futami 22-2, Futami, Akashi, Hyogo, 674-0093, Japan

    Tetsuya Nishikawa

  2. Fisheries Resources Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Katsurakoi 116, Kushiro, Hokkaido, 085-0802, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Watanabe

  3. Sanyo Techno Marine Co., Ltd., Kushihikicho 1-268-1, Omiya, Saitama, 330-0851, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Shiotani

  4. Marine Ecology Institute Co., Ltd., Haradamotomachi 3-3-4, Toyonaka, Osaka, 561-0808, Japan

    Syusaku Izumi

  5. Marine Biological Research Institute of Japan Co., Ltd., Yutaka 4-3-16, Shinagawa, Tokyo, 142-0042, Japan

    Kazushi Furusawa

  6. Fisheries Resources Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Shinhama-Cho 3-7-25, Shiogama, Miyagi, 985-0001, Japan

    Kazuaki Tadokoro

Authors
  1. Tetsuya Nishikawa
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  2. Tsuyoshi Watanabe
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  3. Tsuyoshi Shiotani
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  4. Syusaku Izumi
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  5. Kazushi Furusawa
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  6. Kazuaki Tadokoro
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Correspondence to Tetsuya Nishikawa.

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Nishikawa, T., Watanabe, T., Shiotani, T. et al. Seasonal copepod dynamics and biomass in Harima-Nada, eastern Seto Inland Sea, Japan. Fish Sci 89, 343–356 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-022-01659-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-022-01659-1

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