The influence of main ecological and environmental factors on the energy budget of Schlegel＇ s black rockfish Sebastes schlegeli

In the Maidao Ecological Laboratory of the Huanghai Sea Fisheries Research Institute in 1998 ~ 2000, the continuous flow-through method was adopted to determine the energy budget components and models of Schlegel＇ s black rockfish under different ecological and environmental factors, such as temperature, food species, body mass and feeding level, etc. The body mass of test fish ranged from 21.2 to 224.5 g. The specific growth rate tended to invert ＂U＂ change with temperature increase. The ecological conversion efficiency showed the same trend as temperature and feeding level rise. Only the specific growth rate tended to decelerate the increment with the rise of feeding level. From the above quantitative relationships, the maximum and optimal growth temper- atures could be obtained as 17.5 and 16.2 ℃, and the maintenance feeding rate and optimum feeding rate as 0.8% and 4. 1% of the body mass. The specific growth rate and ecological conversion coefficient showed a decelerating decrease trend with body mass increment. The small-sized fish food was more advantageous to the feeding level increase in comparison with the small-sized shrimp food, which led to the increase of growth, metabolism and excretion, but had no significant influence on the ecological conversion coefficient. All of temperature, feeding level, body mass and food species can obviously change the energy budget models. The assigning rate of growth energy tended to change along the invert ＂U＂ curve with the increase of temperature and feeding level, and decrease with the body mass increase, but the assigning rates of metabolism energy and excretion energy were quite reverse. These relationships could be quantitatively described as quadratic or power function curve. If the above relationships proved true to other marine fish, the establishment of energy budget model of the same fish under different conditions can be largely simplified.

Community characteristics of macrobenthos in the Huanghe(Yellow River) Estuary during water and sediment discharge regulation

The community characteristics of macrobenthos in the Huanghe（Yellow River） Estuary is influenced by a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors. Here, we investigated short-term changes（1-month） in macrobenthic community structure in response to water and sediment discharge regulation（WSDR） in 2011.Specifically, we sampled the macrobenthos at 18 sampling stations situated at four distances（5, 10, 20, and 40 km）from the mouth of the Huanghe Estuary before（mid-June）, during（early-July）, and after（mid-July） WSDR. The results showed that a total of 73, 72, and 85 species were collected before, during, and after WSDR, respectively.Then, 13, 1, and 16 dominant species were detected at this three periods. Four phyla were primarily detected at all three periods（Annelida, Mollusca, Arthropoda, and Echinodermata）. However, while Mollusca and Annelida were the most important phyla in our study, Echinodermata and Annelida were the most important phyla in 1982,demonstrating major changes to community structure over a 3-decadal period. All stations were of high quality BOPA index before WSDR, whereas two and three stations were of reduced quality BOPA index during and after WSDR, respectively. The results of ABC curves showed that had incurred disturbed conditions after human activities WSDR. Most important of all, multivariate analyses and RDA analysis indicated that the structure of the macrobenthic community was closely linked to environment factors, including that organic content factor caused the distribution of macrobenthic community mostly during WSDR, while water depth after WSDR affected the macro benthos community structure seriously, and during WSDR, the environment factor influencing it was not single, including organic content, sulfide content, Hg and As. These differences may have been due to changes in water transparency negatively impacting the growth and development of macrobenthos, due to specific lifehistory requirements. Our results demonstrate that anthropogenic activity is having both long-term（3 decadal）and short term（1-month） impacts on the structure of the macrobenthic community of the Huanghe Estuary. In conclusion, human activities WSDR influence the habitat environment of macro benthos, including the water temperature, nutrients, bioturbation, and so on. Therefore, we suggest the necessity to strengthen regulations of land-derived organic pollutant input to maintain the ecological balance of the Huanghe Estuary.