Marine pollution and overfishing induced the biodiversity loss and ecological degradation of the Beibu Gulf ecosystem in Guangxi,SE China.In an effort to restore the ecosystem and fishery resources,artificial reefs we...Marine pollution and overfishing induced the biodiversity loss and ecological degradation of the Beibu Gulf ecosystem in Guangxi,SE China.In an effort to restore the ecosystem and fishery resources,artificial reefs were deployed in the Beibu Gulf as the marine ranching area and their ecological performance need to be investigated.We constructed Ecopath ecological trophic models for the marine ranching area and a nearby control area to compare their ecosystem throughput and food web structure difference,and to calculate the ecological carrying capacity of various functional groups.Results indicate that the total system throughput of the marine ranching area was significantly higher than the control area,and the majority of system throughput occurred at trophic levelsⅠandⅡin both ecosystems.The system connectance indices for the marine ranching and control areas were 0.27 and 0.32,and the omnivory indices were 0.16 and 0.19,indicating simple food web structures;both areas are in a developmental stage with TPP/TR ratios of 2.69 and 9.36,respectively.Compared to the control area,marine ranching area exhibited a higher system maturity,and the ecological carrying capacity of“large and medium-sized demersal fish”and“other bivalves”functional groups in the marine ranching area increased by 43.83%and 233.62%,respectively,allowing for more high-trophic-level predators and large benthic animals.This study provided a reference for the formulation of fishery management policies in the Beibu Gulf,to maintain ecosystem stability and biodiversity.展开更多
基金Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2022YFD2401301)the Primary Research and Development Plan of Guangxi Province(No.GuiKe AB21220064)+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.42106102,42306151)the Shandong Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.SDCXZG202301009)。
文摘Marine pollution and overfishing induced the biodiversity loss and ecological degradation of the Beibu Gulf ecosystem in Guangxi,SE China.In an effort to restore the ecosystem and fishery resources,artificial reefs were deployed in the Beibu Gulf as the marine ranching area and their ecological performance need to be investigated.We constructed Ecopath ecological trophic models for the marine ranching area and a nearby control area to compare their ecosystem throughput and food web structure difference,and to calculate the ecological carrying capacity of various functional groups.Results indicate that the total system throughput of the marine ranching area was significantly higher than the control area,and the majority of system throughput occurred at trophic levelsⅠandⅡin both ecosystems.The system connectance indices for the marine ranching and control areas were 0.27 and 0.32,and the omnivory indices were 0.16 and 0.19,indicating simple food web structures;both areas are in a developmental stage with TPP/TR ratios of 2.69 and 9.36,respectively.Compared to the control area,marine ranching area exhibited a higher system maturity,and the ecological carrying capacity of“large and medium-sized demersal fish”and“other bivalves”functional groups in the marine ranching area increased by 43.83%and 233.62%,respectively,allowing for more high-trophic-level predators and large benthic animals.This study provided a reference for the formulation of fishery management policies in the Beibu Gulf,to maintain ecosystem stability and biodiversity.
