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Seasonal variations in the trawling marine organism community at the Changyun Rise off central western Taiwan from spring to autumn 2020
Meng-Hsien Chen 1,2,3, Chien-Cheng Lai 1, Tzn-Chun Chen 1, Chuan-Wen Ho 4, Pei-Jie Meng 5,6, Kuo-Shu Chen 7, Tsang-Hsieh Hung 7 and Chih-Wei Chang 1,2,5,6,7
1 Department of Oceanography (Marine Biology Group), National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan
2 Institute of Marine Ecology and Conservation, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan
3 Department of Biomedical Science and Environmental Biology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan
4 Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsien University, Taiwan
5 Institute of Marine Biology, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan
6 National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Taiwan
7 Marine Ecology and Conservation Research Center, National Academy of Marine Research, Taiwan
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Abstract:
This study investigated the macrobenthic fauna in the sandy-bottom sublittoral area off the Changhua coastline, central western Taiwan, before the planned construction of offshore wind turbines. We used a local commercial demersal otter trawling boat to conduct a spring-autumn survey with simultaneous measurement of hydrographic parameters and water sampling for water quality analysis at the tentative wind farm fields at inshore (15–25-m depth) and offshore (40–50-m depth) sites. Three surveys were performed in March, July, and September 2020, and the water parameters complied with standard Grade A seawater quality. In total, 92 marine macrobenthic species were identified, including 33 families and 62 fish species, 3 families and 8 species of shrimps, 6 families and 10 species of crabs, 6 families and 9 species of cephalopods, and 3 others. Among them, 40 sandy dwelling fish species constituted 65% of the total number of species, whereas only 15 reef-sandy, 5 reef, and 2 pelagic residential fish species were identified, constituting 24%, 8%, and 3%, respectively, of the total number of fish species. The top 8 dominant components in descending order were all sand-inhabiting species: Equulites rivulatus, Loliolus beka, E. absconditus, Plotosus lineatus, Upeneus japonicus, Parapenaeopsis sinica, P. hardwickii, and Trachinocephalus myops, constituting 77.2% of the relative abundance and 12.0% of the relative biomass. The macrobenthic fauna were categorized into two groups: dry and wet seasonal groups. Loliolus beka, P. hardwickii, Pennahia pawak, and Trichiurus japonicus were the major members of the dry season group, and Arius arius, T. myops, Lagocephalus lunaris, and Uroteuthis chinensis were members of the wet season group. Four local residents, namely T. myops, U. japonicus, and P. hardwickii, as well as A. arius (ranked the second highest in biomass), were identified and suggested as potential marine ecological indicators of the Changyun Rise.
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Keywords: baseline, seasonal variation, Trachinocephalus myops, Upeneus japonicus, Arius arius, Parapenaeiopsis hardwickii.
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*Corresponding author; e-mail: changcw@namr.gov.tw
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©
2022
Marine Research , ISSN 2709-6629
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