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Ecological carrying capacity of Chinese shrimp stock enhancement in Laizhou Bay of East China based on Ecopath model.

LIN Qun1, 2, LI Xian-sen1, LI Zhong-yi1, JIN Xian-shi1   

  1. (1Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory for Sustainable Development of Marine Fisheries/Shandong Province Key Laboratory for Fishery Resources and Ecoenvironment, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao 266071, Shandong, China; 2College of Fishery, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, Shandong, China)
  • Online:2013-04-18 Published:2013-04-18

Abstract: Stock enhancement is an important way of fishery resources conservation, which can increase the high quality fishery resources and improve the fish population structure. The study of ecological carrying capacity is the premise for the scientific implementation of stock enhancement. Based on the survey data of the fishery resources and ecological environment in Laizhou Bay from 2009 to 2010, an Ecopath massbalance model of the Laizhou Bay ecosystem consisted of 26 functional groups was constructed, and applied to analyze the overall characteristics of the ecosystem, the trophic interrelationships, and the keystone species, and to calculate the ecological carrying capacity of Chinese shrimp enhancement. As for the overall characteristics of the ecosystem, the total primary production/total respiration (TPP/TR) was 1.53, total primary production/total biomass (TPP/B) was 24.54, Finn’s cycling index was lower (0.07), surplus production was higher (434.41 t·km-2·a-1), and system connectance index was lower (0.29), indicating that this ecosystem was at an early development stage. The analysis on the keystone species showed that Chinese shrimp was not a keystone species of this ecosystem. At present, the biomass of Chinese shrimp in the ecosystem was 0.1143 t·km-2, with a greater potential of continued enhancement. It did not exceed the ecological carrying capacity of 2.9489 t·km-2 when the biomass of the Chinese shrimp was increased by 25.8 times.