Abstract
The paper evaluates the species richness, material transfer, energy flow, and system function of the southwestern Yellow Sea Ecosystem (SYSE) indicating intensive human intervention affecting this large marine ecosystem. Twenty functional groups were chosen to represent the basic components of the SYSE for Ecopath modeling based on offshore surveys, annual bird observations, and the China Fisheries Statistical Yearbooks. Forty-nine species based on 15 functional groups of Ecopath model were assessed by stable isotopic analysis (SIA) to verify ecosystem features, energy flow, and trophic structure of the SYSE derived from Ecopath model. Results showed there was a clear correlation of the estimated trophic structure calculated from SIA and the Ecopath model with R2=0.7184. The SYSE Ecopath model was still at an immature and unstable stage according to outputs of the modeling parameters. This paper provides a verification method of detecting the ecosystem features and maturity, stability, and resilience of marine ecosystems by comparing outputs from Ecopath models with SIA.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 7936-7951 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Environmental Science and Pollution Research |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2022 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors are grateful to Jian Cheng in Zhejiang Ocean University; Hongmei Zhu in Xiamen University; and Prof. Cheng Huang in the School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, for their valuable support in identifying specific species. Special thanks to Ms. Sarah Kennedy at Integrated Oceans Management, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, for her valuable suggestions and English rewording.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under grant no. 2017YFC0506506 and no. 2017YFF0206905; the National Natural Science Foundation of China with grant no. 41473001; and Marine Science and Technology Innovation Project of Jiangsu Provincial Marine and Fisheries Bureau (HY2018-2).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
Funding
The authors are grateful to Jian Cheng in Zhejiang Ocean University; Hongmei Zhu in Xiamen University; and Prof. Cheng Huang in the School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, for their valuable support in identifying specific species. Special thanks to Ms. Sarah Kennedy at Integrated Oceans Management, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, for her valuable suggestions and English rewording. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under grant no. 2017YFC0506506 and no. 2017YFF0206905; the National Natural Science Foundation of China with grant no. 41473001; and Marine Science and Technology Innovation Project of Jiangsu Provincial Marine and Fisheries Bureau (HY2018-2).
Keywords
- China
- Ecopath model
- Functional groups
- southwestern Yellow Sea Ecosystem (SYSE)
- Stable isotope analysis (SIA)
- Trophic structure