Abstract
Qilianyu Islands coral reefs (QICR), located in the northeastern part of the South China Sea, has been affected by human activities and natural disturbance. To characterize the trophic structure, ecosystem properties and keystone species of this region, a food-web model for the QICR is developed using methods involving a mass-balance approach with Ecopath with Ecosim software. Trophic levels range from 1.00 for detritus and primary producers to 3.80 for chondrichthyes. The mean trophic transfer efficiency for the entire ecosystem is 13.15%, with 55% of total energy flow originating from primary producers. A mixed trophic impact analysis indicates that coral strongly impacts most components of this ecosystem. A comparison of our QICR model with that for other coral reef ecosystems suggests that the QICR ecosystem is immature and/or is degraded.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute for providing the data used for this study, and Steve O’Shea from Edanz Group (https://en-author-services.edanz.com/ac), for editing a draft of this manuscript.
Funding
The National Key Research and Development Program of China under contract No. 2018YFC1406502; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 31902374; the Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) under contract No. GML2019ZD0605; the Central Public-Interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences under contract No. 2020TD05.
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Hong, X., Chen, Z., Zhang, J. et al. Construction and analysis of a coral reef trophic network for Qilianyu Islands, Xisha Islands. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 41, 58–72 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-022-2047-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-022-2047-8