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

Autor: Atsushi Tawa, Masashi Kodama, Kazuhiro Hata, Shingo Kimura, Katsumi Tsukamoto, Sachie Miyazaki, Akira Shinoda, Yukinori Kazeto, Seinen Chow, Hiroaki Kurogi, Takeshi Handa, Yoshiaki Yamada, Shun Watanabe, Tomowo Watanabe, Makoto Okazaki, Noritaka Mochioka, Daisuke Ambe, Jun Aoyama, Kazuharu Nomura, Tadafumi Ichikawa, Hideki Tanaka, Satoshi Katayama
Rok vydání: 2010
Předmět:
Zdroj: Marine Ecology Progress Series. 402:233-238
ISSN: 1616-1599
0171-8630
Popis: 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 sta- ble carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) 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 char- acteristically had a wide range for δ 13 C (-24.9 to -12.0‰ and -20.5 to -11.3‰ for the initial and terminal phases, respectively) and δ 15 N (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, characteristi- cally had a very narrow range of δ 13 C (-16.9 to -15.3‰) and a wide but lower range of δ 15 N (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) spawn- ing migration and retain the initial isotopic values of where they ceased feeding.
Databáze: OpenAIRE