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Seasonal size composition and abundance distribution of Euphausia pacifica in relation to environmental factors in the southern Yellow Sea

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Abstract

The seasonal size structure and spatial abundance distributions of Euphausia pacifica populations were investigated in the central part of southern Yellow Sea from August 2009 to May 2010. The abundance and biomass of E. pacifica were higher in spring and summer, and lower in autumn and winter. The mean abundance and biomass (calculated by carbon) were 74.94 ind./m3 and 8.23 mg/m3, respectively. Females with total length (TL) ranging between 10 and 19 mm in summer had a substantial contribution to the population biomass, whereas larvae of TL of 3–7 mm in spring were the main contributor to the population abundance. The sex ratio (female:male) showed a female bias in four seasons. Its value peaked in summer, and then decreased in autumn, spring, and winter successively. Cohort analysis revealed that the length-frequency distribution of E. pacifica could be characterized as one group with large animals (mean TL>12 mm) accompanied by one or two subgroups of small individuals (mean TL<7 mm). Regarding the spatial distribution, juveniles and adults of E. pacifica tend to concentrate in relatively deep water with low temperature (~11°C) and high salinity (>32), whereas its larvae showed more abundance in inshore water with rich chlorophyll a, low salinity (<32), and warm temperature (>11°C), especially in summer and autumn. Associations changed seasonally between stage-specific abundance and environmental factors.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the crew of R/V Beidou for field assistance and the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea Scientific Observation and Experiment Station for Fishery Resources and Environment (SOEFRE), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China. The completion of the paper was partially supported by the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Marine Biology of Texas A&M University and China Scholarship Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Tao Zuo

  2. Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao, 266237, China

    Tao Zuo

  3. Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston, TX, 77553, USA

    Hui Liu

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  1. Tao Zuo
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  2. Hui Liu
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Correspondence to Tao Zuo.

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Foundation item: The NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers under contract No. U1606404; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 40976103; the Ministry of Science and Technology of China under contract No. 2011CB403604.

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Zuo, T., Liu, H. Seasonal size composition and abundance distribution of Euphausia pacifica in relation to environmental factors in the southern Yellow Sea. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 38, 70–77 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-019-1358-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-019-1358-x

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