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Sulcus and otolith outline analyses: complementary tools for stock discrimination in white croaker Pennahia argentata in northern Chinese coastal waters

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Abstract

This study analyzed and compared variations of the sulcus and otolith outlines of three geographic stocks (Huanghe (Yellow) River estuary (HHE), Jiaozhou Bay (JZB), and Changjiang (Yangtze) River estuary (CJE)) of white croaker Pennahia argentata in northern Chinese coastal waters. The sulcus and otolith outline analyses via elliptical Fourier transform (EFT, i.e. outline analysis) achieved an overall classification rate of 80.4% and 87.2%, respectively. Based on a combination of sulcus and otolith shape indices (SIs) and two derivative ratios, a moderate discriminatory efficiency of 64.7% was obtained. The results indicate that sulcus outline analysis could be used alone to discriminate white croaker stocks, and that both sulcus and otolith outline analyses discriminated the fish stocks at a higher classification rate than the shape indices. The sulcus outline analysis provided complementary information to the whole otolith outline analysis for stock discrimination. Both the sulcus and otolith outline analyses efficiently discriminated between the most geographically separated CJE and HHE stocks, indicating that they could be considered discrete stocks for fishery management.

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Acknowledgment

We thank the people who contributed to the sample collection and Dr. ZHAO B. and Dr. YU X. for their help in data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Junjie Song, Shuozeng Dou, Liang Cao & Jinhu Liu

  2. Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Shuozeng Dou, Liang Cao & Jinhu Liu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Junjie Song & Shuozeng Dou

Authors
  1. Junjie Song
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  2. Shuozeng Dou
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  3. Liang Cao
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  4. Jinhu Liu
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Correspondence to Jinhu Liu.

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Data Availability Statement

The datasets during and/or analyzed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the Programs Science Fund for Creative Research Groups (Nos. 40821004, 41121064)

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Song, J., Dou, S., Cao, L. et al. Sulcus and otolith outline analyses: complementary tools for stock discrimination in white croaker Pennahia argentata in northern Chinese coastal waters. J. Ocean. Limnol. 38, 1559–1571 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-020-0023-8

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