Abstract:Patinopecten yessoensis is a cold-water bivalve commonly found in northwestern Pacific area including northern Japan, the Far East of Russian and the northern Korean Peninsula. It was introduced to China from the Mutsu Bay (Aomori Prefecture, Japan) and was aqua-farmed in the coast of the Bohai Sea and the north of the Yellow Sea in 1982. In this study, we applied stable isotope tracer technique on samples from different geographical populations of P. yessoensis to characterize their ecological adaptability in the northern Yellow Sea of China. Samples were collected from the bottom sowing population from Shandong Changdao, Liaoning Haiyangdao and Zhangzidao, the artificial population of Zhangzidao-Red, the natural colonized population in Liaoning Lvshun and the original natural population in the Aomori Mutsu Bay of Japan. The results showed that the δ13C value of the adductor muscle and the visceral mass of P. yessoensis were -20.47‰±0.66‰ and -24.13‰±2.41‰ respectively; the δ15N values of the two tissues were 8.52‰±1.32‰ and 7.26‰±0.49‰ respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated significant variances in δ13C and δ15N of the visceral mass and the adductor muscle among different populations; the scatter plot of 1δ13C versus δ15N for the two tissues across all samples showed apparent difference between the Chinese and Japanese populations. Among the 8 populations in China, the value of δ13C versus δ15N of the Changdao population was lower than those of other groups. These results indicated that significant divergences emerged between the Chinese and Japanese populations of P. yessoensis, as well as between different populations in China. This phenomenon could be explained by the ecological adaptability developed during the settlement in different environments. Our study helped understand the ecological adaptation process of the scallop P. yessoensis in the Yellow Sea, and provided useful information for promoting the economic benefits and sustainable development of the scallop culture industry in China.
