Abstract
Sargassum horneri C. Agardh is an important commercial edible seaweed species in east Asia. Benthic beds and floating rafts in coastal areas make excellent habitats for marine organisms to feed, hide, and spawn. Many commercially important fish species such as Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus), yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata), and Japanese horse mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) live in seaweed beds. Chinese and Japanese fisherman rely on S. horneri beds as productive fish harvest areas. The Zhejiang government in China set a total allowable catch standard, to preserve the Ma’an Islands ecosystem, which is a marine protected area. In this study we analysed the association between weight and one-sided surface area of S. horneri beds, and calculated the ratio of one-sided surface area to change in wet weight over time. We collected samples from December 2014 to May 2015. Approximately 1 g of S. horneri biomass provided ~15 cm2 of one-sided surface area available to marine organisms. These calculations can be used as a reference regarding potential space to improve total allowable catch standard management in S. horneri beds, through the estimation of space capacity of seaweed beds.
Highlights
Sargassum seaweed beds are important coastal habitats for a variety of marine organisms; in these habitats marine organisms feed, hide, and spawn [1,2,3,4,5,6]
One-sided surface area increased as wet weight increased
One-sided surface area was linearly related to wet weight (Fig 1)
Summary
Sargassum seaweed beds are important coastal habitats for a variety of marine organisms; in these habitats marine organisms feed, hide, and spawn [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Floating seaweed rafts in the east China Sea contain only S. horneri thalli [22,23,24,8] onto which commercially important pelagic fish lay their eggs.
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