Abstract: In order to investigate the temporal-spatial distribution of yellow goosefish in the open waters of the southern Yellow Sea (SYS) and East China Sea (ECS), according to the fishery data by bottom-trawl surveys and environmental data including sea bottom temperature (SBT), sea bottom salinity (SBS), bottom concentration of dissolved oxygen (BDO) and depth during 2018-2019, we established habitat suitability index (HSI) models by arithmetic mean (AMM) and geometric mean (GMM) methods, and compared the model outputs by cross validations. Especially, the weight of each environmental factor was evaluated by boosted regression tree (BRT). Results showed that the area with the highest habitat quality varied among seasons. The yellow goosefish mainly inhabited in the adjacent area of the Yangtze River Estuary and coastal waters of Jiangsu Province with depth ranged from 22 to 49 m in spring. The optimal inhabitation was located in the SYS, with the bottom temperature ranged from 8.9-10.9 ℃ in summer and autumn. Particularly, the optimal inhabitation extended from the SYS to the ECS with bottom temperature ranged from 9.2-12.7 ℃ in winter. Results of BRT models showed that depth was the most important environmental factor in spring and bottom temperature was the crucial one in the other three seasons. Results of cross validation showed that the weighted AMM-based HSI model performed better for yellow goosefish in spring, autumn and winter. The distribution of yellow goosefish was closely related to its biological traits and environmental factors in the SYS and ECS, China.

Key words: Lophius litulon, habitat suitability index, environmental factor, boosted regression tree, spatio-temporal distribution