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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1424397

Population connectivity of the swordtip squid Uroteuthis edulis between southern Japan and northern Taiwan using statolith trace elemental analysis

Provisionally accepted
Yumeng Pang Yumeng Pang 1,2*Yusuke Yokoyama Yusuke Yokoyama 1Takahiro Aze Takahiro Aze 1Takahiro Irie Takahiro Irie 1Chih-Shin Chen Chih-Shin Chen 3,4Tomohiko Kawamura Tomohiko Kawamura 3Yoko Iwata Yoko Iwata 1
  • 1 Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
  • 2 Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center, EarthLab, University of Washington, Seattle, California, United States
  • 3 National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan
  • 4 Center of Excellence for Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Uroteuthis edulis (Hoyle, 1885) is an Indo-Pacific squid species widely distributing in the western Pacific, and commercially important especially in Japan and Taiwan. It has been suggested that some individuals are possibly transported from the spawning ground in north Taiwan to the coasts of Japan, however, the strength of population connectivity between those areas and its influence on U. edulis population dynamics were unveiled. To understand the U. edulis population connectivity in this area, the correlations between statolith trace elements and abiotic/biotic factors were examined first, and then squid experienced environments were postulated throughout their entire life cycle. Sr/Ca ratio showed a strongly negative correlation with ambient water temperature but no correlation with individual growth rate, suggesting that Sr/Ca ratio can be used to reflect squid experienced temperatures. Most squid caught in the Sea of Japan hatched in the areas having similar water temperature with where Taiwanese squid hatched, that would be off the north Taiwan or even warmer area. Statolith trace elements successfully distinguished the catch locations but not the hatching grounds, implying that hatching grounds of Japan and Taiwan squid were largely overlapped. Thus, we suggest that there is strong population connectivity of U. edulis population between southern Japan and northern Taiwan. As there was no clear evidence for existence of local population hatched in the Sea of Japan in this study, U. edulis population might display a source-sink population dynamics, that is, population in Taiwanese waters and/or further south as the source, and the one in the Sea of Japan as a sink population. As U. edulis should be considered as a metapopulation, collaboration among countries in the northwestern Pacific is required for sustainable fishery management of this species.

    Keywords: Sr/Ca ratio, Life trajectory, experienced environments, Source-sink dynamics, Metapopulation

    Received: 28 Apr 2024; Accepted: 03 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Pang, Yokoyama, Aze, Irie, Chen, Kawamura and Iwata. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yumeng Pang, Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan

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