An introduced turbot population was used to establish families and to estimate genetic parameters of the offspring. However, there is a lack of pedigree information, and common environmental effects can be introduced when each full-sib family is raised in a single tank. Therefore, in the genetic evaluation, SSRs (simple sequence repeats) were used to reconstruct the pedigree and to calculate molecular relatedness between individuals, and the early mixed-family culture model was used to remove the impact of the common environmental effects. After 100 d of early mixed culture, twenty SSRs were used to cluster 20 families and to calculate paired molecular relationships (n=880). Additive genetic matrices were constructed using molecular relatedness (MR) and pedigree reconstruction (PR) and were then applied to the same animal model to estimate genetic parameters. Based on PR, the heritabilities for body weight and body length were 0.214±0.124 and 0.117±0.141, and based on MR they were 0.101±0.031 and 0.102±0.034, respectively. Cross validation showed that the accuracies of the estimated breeding values based on MR (body weight and body length of 0.717±0.045 and 0.629±0.141, respectively) were higher than those of PR (body weight and body length of 0.692±0.052 and 0.615±0.060, respectively). The MR method ensure availability of all genotyped selection candidates, thereby improving the accuracy of the breeding value estimation.

Chaeturichthys stigmatias and Amblychaeturichthys hexanema belong to the family Gobiidae, which are offshore warm fish species and widely distribute in the western Pacific Ocean. In this study, the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences and 12S ribosomal RNA (12S rRNA) sequences were used to analyze the interspecific differences between the two species. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the interspecific distance was significantly higher than the intraspecific genetic distance. The Neighbor-Joining tree showed two separate clusters, without sharing haplotype. The mitochondrial genome sequence of C. stigmatias was also reported. This genome was 17 134 bp in size, with a high A+T content of 55.9%. The phylogenetic analysis based on the tandem 13 coding protein genes nucleotide sequences indicated that C. stigmatias showed a close relationship with A. hexanema. This study can provide the basic genetic data for two species and will help for constructing the phylogeny of the Gobiiade.

Growth and energy budget of marine amphipod juvenile Eogammarus possjeticus at different temperatures (20°C, 24°C, 26°C, 28°C, 30°C, 32°C and 34°C) were investigated in this study. The results showed that the cumulative mortality rate increased significantly with rising temperature (p<0.01), and exceeded 50% after 24 h when temperature was above 30°C. With the temperature increasing from 20°C to 26°C, the ingestion rate and absorption rate increased, but decreased significantly above 28°C (p<0.01), indicating a decline in feeding ability at high temperatures. The specific growth rate increased with rising temperature, but decreased significantly (p<0.01) after reaching the maximum value at 24°C. Similarly, the oxygen consumption and ammonia emission rates also showed a trend of first increase and then decrease. However, the O:N ratio decreased first and then increased with rising temperature, indicating that the energy demand of E. possjeticus juvenile transferred from metabolism of carbohydrate and lipid to protein. In the energy distribution of amphipods, the proportion of each energy is different. With rising temperature, the ratio of the energy deposited for growth accounted for ingested gross energy showing a trend of decrease, while the energy lost to respiration, ammonia excretion, and feces accounted for ingested gross energy being showed a trend of increase. It seemed that rising temperature increased the metabolism and energy consumption of the amphipods and, meanwhile, decreased the energy used for growth, which may be an important reason for the slow growth and small body size of the amphipods during the summer high-temperature period.

Two species of Nassarius Duméril, 1805 from the South China Sea are described and illustrated. The specimens are in the Nassariidae collection of the Marine Biological Museum of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao. Nassarius concavus sp. nov., from the sandy bottom at a depth of 180 m, resembles Nassarius glabrus Zhang and Zhang, 2014 in general shell morphology, but differs from the latter in having a smaller, more slender adult shell without axial ribs on the upper teleoconch whorls. Nassarius nanshaensis sp. nov., from the Nansha Islands at a depth of 56–147 m, is similar to Nassarius maxiutongi Zhang, Zhang and Li, 2019 in the shell sculpture, but differs in having a more slender shell with a higher spire, and fewer cusps on the rachidian tooth (9–11 vs. 13–17).

Nitrification is a key step in the global nitrogen cycle. Compared with autotrophic nitrification, heterotrophic nitrification remains poorly understood. In this study, Halomonas venusta MA-ZP17-13, isolated from seawater in shrimp aquaculture (Penaeus vannamei), could simultaneously undertake nitrification and denitrification. With the initial ammonium concentration at 100 mg/L, the maximum ammonium-nitrogen removal rate reached 98.7% under the optimal conditions including C/N concentration ratio at 5.95, pH at 8.93, and NaCl at 2.33%. The corresponding average removal rate was 1.37 mg/(L·h) (according to nitrogen) in 3 d at 11.2°C. By whole genome sequencing and analysis, nitrification- and denitrification-related genes were identified, including ammonia monooxygenase, nitrate reductase, nitrite reductase, nitric oxide dioxygenase and nitric oxide synthase; while no gene encoding hydroxylamine oxidase was identified, it implied the existence of a novel nitrification pathway from hydroxylamine to nitrate. These results indicate heterotrophic bacterium H. venusta MA-ZP17-13 can undertake simultaneous nitrification and denitrification at low temperature and has potential for ${\rm {NH}}_4^+ $-N/NH₃-N removal in marine aquaculture systems.

In consideration of the rapid degradation of coral reef ecosystems, the establishment of models is helpful to comprehend the degradation mechanism of coral reef ecosystems and predict the development process of coral reef communities. According to the characteristics of complex ecosystem of tropical coral reefs in China, the coral reef functional group is the core level variable; combined with the multiple feedback effects of coral reef functional groups and environmental changes, the study presents a coral reef ecosystem dynamics model with hermatypic corals as the core. Based on the simulation of the assumed initial value and the internal feedback of the system, the results show that in the basic simulation (relative health conditions), the coverage area of live corals and coral reefs generally decreased first and then increased, and increased by 4.67% and 6.38% between 2010 and 2050, respectively. Based on the calibration model and the current situation of the studied area, the multi-factor disturbance effects of coral reef communities were simulated and explored by setting up three scenarios involving fishing policy, terrestrial deposition, and inorganic nitrogen emissions. Among them, in the single factor disturbance, the fishing policy exerts the most direct impact on the community decline; and the succession phenomenon is obvious; the terrestrial sedimentation has a faster and more integrated effect on the community decline; the effect of inorganic nitrogen emission on the community decline is relatively slow. In the double/multi-factor disturbance, the superimposed disturbance will aggravate the multi-source feedback effect of the coral reef communities development, accelerate the community decay rate, and make its development trajectory more complicated and diverse. This method provides a scientific and feasible method for simulating the damage of long-term coral reef community and exploring the development law and adaptive management of coral reef ecosystems. In the future, it can be further studied in the ecological restoration process and decision-making direction of coral reefs.

This study conducted four cruises during 2014–2017 to investigate relationships between macrobenthic communities and sediment contaminations in sea area around the Zhoushan Archipelago. Fourteen sites were categorized into three groups: high total heavy metal contamination content (HHMC), high total petroleum hydrocarbon content (HTPH), and low content ratio of heavy metal contamination content to total petroleum hydrocarbon content (HMC/TPH) areas. Four main taxa of macrofauna (polychaetes, bivalves, gastropods, and crustaceans) were determined to respond to environmental factors differently. While tolerant polychaetes being the minimal impact by environmental factors, bivalves were threated by heavy metal pollutions in sediment. Additionally, body size distribution frequency demonstrated that macrofauna in the low HMC/TPH areas were less disturbed by contamination than those in the HHMC and HTPH areas. The result represented the presentation of sensitive species while tolerant species are usually considered as small size organisms. Overall, this study confirmed the hypothesis that the contamination levels of small-scale patches is indicated by the condition of macrobenthic communities.

Selenium (Se) has been recognized as a key trace element that is associated with growth of primary producers in oceans. During March and May 2018, surface water (67 samples) was collected and measured by HG-ICP-MS to investigate the distribution and behavior of selenite [Se(IV)], selenate [Se(VI)] and dissolved organic selenides (DOSe) concentrations in the Zhujiang River Estuary (ZRE), South China Sea (SCS) and Malacca Straits (MS). It showed that Se(IV) (0.14–3.44 nmol/L) was the dominant chemical species in the ZRE, related to intensive manufacture in the watershed; while the major species shifted to DOSe (0.05–0.79 nmol/L) in the MS, associated with the wide coverage of peatland and intensive agriculture activities in the Malaysian Peninsula. The SCS was identified as the northern and southern sections (NSCS and SSCS) based on the variations of surface circulation. The insignificant variation of Se(IV) in the NSCS and SSCS was obtained in March, potentially resulting from the high chemical activity and related preferential assimilation by phytoplankton communities. Contrastively, the lower DOSe concentrations in the SSCS likely resulted from higher primary production and utilization during March. During May, the concentration of Se(IV) remained low in the NSCS and SSCS, while DOSe concentrations increased notably in the SSCS, likely due to the impact of terrestrial inputs from surface current reversal and subsequent accumulation. On a global scale, DOSe is the dominant Se species in tropical oceans, while Se(IV) and Se(VI) are major fractions in high-latitude oceans, resulting from changes in predominated phytoplankton and related biological assimilation.

Based on a hydrodynamic-ecological model, the temperature, salinity, current, phytoplankton (Chl a), zooplankton, and nutrient (dissolved inorganic nitrogen, DIN, and dissolved inorganic phosphorous, DIP) distributions in the Beibu Gulf were simulated and the nutrient budget of 2015 was quantitatively analyzed. The simulated results show that interface processes and monsoons significantly influence the ecological processes in the gulf. The concentrations of DIN, DIP, phytoplankton and zooplankton are generally higher in the eastern and northern gulf than that in the western and southern gulf. The key regions affected by ecological processes are the Qiongzhou Strait in winter and autumn and the estuaries along the Guangxi coast and the Red River in summer. In most of the studied domains, biochemical processes contribute more to the nutrient budget than do physical processes, and the DIN and DIP increase over the year. Phytoplankton plays an important role in the nutrient budget; phytoplankton photosynthetic uptake is the nutrient sink, phytoplankton dead cellular release is the largest source of DIN, and phytoplankton respiration is the largest source of DIP. The nutrient flux in the connected sections of the Beibu Gulf and open South China Sea (SCS) inflows from the east and outflows to the south. There are 113 709 t of DIN and 5 277 t of DIP imported from the open SCS to the gulf year-around.

Saltmarshes are one of the most productive ecosystems, which contribute significantly to coastal nutrient and carbon budgets. However, limited information is available on soil nutrient and carbon losses via porewater exchange in saltmarshes. Here, porewater exchange and associated fluxes of nutrients and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in the largest saltmarsh wetland (Chongming Dongtan) in the Changjiang River Estuary were quantified. Porewater exchange rate was estimated to be (37±35) cm/d during December 2017 using a radon (²²²Rn) mass balance model. The porewater exchange delivered 67 mmol/(m²·d), 38 mmol/(m²·d) and 2 690 mmol/(m²·d) of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), dissolved silicon (DSi) and DIC into the coastal waters, respectively. The dominant species of porewater DIN was ${\rm {NH}}_4^+ $ (>99% of DIN). However, different with those in other ecosystems, the dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) concentration in saltmarsh porewater was significantly lower than that in surface water, indicating that saltmarshes seem to be a DIP sink in Chongming Dongtan. The porewater-derived DIN, DSi and DIC accounted for 12%, 5% and 18% of the riverine inputs, which are important components of coastal nutrient and carbon budgets. Furthermore, porewater-drived nutrients had obviously high N/P ratios (160–3 995), indicating that the porewater exchange process may change the nutrient characteristics of the Changjiang River Estuary and further alter the coastal ecological environment.