Last 150-year variability in Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus) abundance based on the anaerobic sediments of the Yellow Sea Basin in the western North Pacific

Abstract

Relatively short historical catch records show that anchovy populations have exhibited large variability over multi-decadal timescales. In order to understand the driving factors (anthropogenic and/or natural) of such variability, it is essential to develop long-term time series of the population prior to the occurrence of notable anthropogenic impact. Well-preserved fish scales in the sediments are regarded as useful indicators reflecting the fluctuations of fish populations over the last centuries. This study aims to validate the anchovy scale deposition rate as a proxy of local anchovy biomass in the Yellow Sea adjoining the western North Pacific. Our reconstructed results indicated that over the last 150 years, the population size of anchovy in the Yellow Sea has exhibited great fluctuations with periodicity of around 50 years, and the pattern of current recovery and collapse is similar to that of historical records. The pattern of large-scale population synchrony with remote ocean basins provides further evidence proving that fish population dynamics are strongly affected by global and basin-scale oceanic/climatic variability.