Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2016, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (6): 68-73.doi: 10.11978/2016021CSTR: 32234.14.2016021

• Marine Biology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impact on fish stock by jellyfish bloom in Pearl River Estuary

LIU Huaxue, XU Youwei, CHEN Zuozhi, ZHANG Wenbo, QI Zhanhui, HUANG Honghui, XU Shannan   

  1. Key Laboratory of Fishery Ecology and Environment, Guangdong Province;Key Laboratory of South China Sea Fishery Resources Exploitation &Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture;South China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences;Guangzhou 510300, China
  • Received:2016-02-26 Revised:2016-06-08 Online:2016-11-30 Published:2016-12-15
  • Contact: XU Shannan. Email: xushannan@scsfri.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    Pearl River S&T Nova Program of Guangzhou (2014J2200020); National Basic Research Program of China (2015CB452904); Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong (2015A030313785)

Abstract: As a big group of gelatinous zooplankton, jellyfish are closely related to other zooplankton and fish through prey process, so they play an important role in marine food web. Environment character, jellyfish community and fish stock in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) during November 2015 were studied. A total of 11 species of jellyfish were identified, belonging to four orders 10 genus. Leptothecata and Anthoathecata have four species, and the dominant species of jellyfish was Pleurobrachia globosa. A total of 17 species of fish were identified, most of which belong to Perciformes (10 species). Fish stock density increased from north to south, then decreased southward, and then gradually increased in the southern PRE. The minimum fish stock density was found in the northern part of the PRE (S1), where Pleurobrachia globosa had an outbreak. The spatial pattern of fish stock pattern was different from those of zooplankton abundance and surface chlorophyll a concentration. Due to the Pleurobrachia globosa outbreak and low fish stock density in the northern PRE, we speculate that this fish stock was influenced by jellyfish bloom in the PRE, but the exact mechanism remains to be studied.

Key words: Jellyfish, Pearl River Estuary, fish, impact