Japanese eel Anguilla japonica do not assimilate nutrition during the oceanic spawning migration: evidence from stable isotope analysis

Marine Ecology Progress Series

Yukinori Kazeto¹  Satoshi Katayama¹  Tadafumi Ichikawa¹  Masashi Kodama¹  Katsumi Tsukamoto¹  Kazuharu Nomura¹  Kazuhiro Hata¹  Makoto Okazaki¹  Jun Aoyama¹  Sachie Miyazaki¹  Akira Shinoda¹  Hideki Tanaka¹  Seinen Chow¹  Daisuke Ambe¹  Noritaka Mochioka¹  Tomowo Watanabe¹  Shingo Kimura¹  Shun Watanabe¹  Yoshiaki Yamada¹  Takeshi Handa¹  Hiroaki Kurogi¹  Atsushi Tawa¹ 

关键词: δ13C;    δ15N;    Starvation;    Spawning migration;    Anguilla japonica;   

DOI  :  10.3354/meps08448

学科分类：海洋学与技术

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: During 2008 and 2009, a total of 12 adult Japanese eels Anguilla japonica were captured in the southern part of the West Mariana Ridge, the presumed spawning area. We compared the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) between the ‘Mariana silvers’ (terminal phase) and those of yellow and silver eels caught in rivers, lakes and coastal areas of Japan (initial phase). Profiles of stable isotope signatures between the initial and terminal phases were similar; both characteristically had a wide range for δ¹³C (–24.9 to –12.0‰ and –20.5 to –11.3‰ for the initial and terminal phases, respectively) and δ¹⁵N (6.5 to 18.4‰ and 9.0 to 18.1‰, respectively). Mesopelagic fishes, including several other anguillid species caught near the West Mariana Ridge, characteristically had a very narrow range of δ¹³C (–16.9 to –15.3‰) and a wide but lower range of δ¹⁵N (5.3 to 11.1‰) than the Japanese eels. The very similar profiles in stable isotopic signatures between the initial and terminal phase eels, distinct from those of Mariana mesopelagic fishes, indicate that Japanese eels do not assimilate nutrition from the marine environment during long (ca. 6 mo) spawning migration and retain the initial isotopic values of where they ceased feeding.

【 授权许可】

Unknown