Studies Of Fish Species Diversity And Ecological Fauna In Taiwan Strait

Taiwan Strait, which is located between Fujian Province and Taiwan Island, hasa unique and high fish species diversity level due to its special marine environment. Inorder to understand fish composition, ecological type and fish fauna of Taiwan Strait,we summarize the history and achievements of fish biodiversity, collect the data ofhistorical surveys and literature results of fish species, summarize fish composition,ecological type and fish fauna in this region, and discuss the variations of fishcomposition and fishery resources under the background of climate change. Theresults show that:⑴The history of fish biodiversity on Taiwan Strait can be divided into four parts:Early Research Period, Start Research Period, Systematic Investigation Period,Comprehensive Research Period, from sporadic reports of new species to systematicand comprehensive studies.⑵The results of four season bottom trawl surveys in part of Taiwan Strait showthat: a total of246species in20orders,84families and163genera are identified. Thedominant order is Perciformes with116species. There are147species in autumn,140species in winter,124species in summer and92species in spring. There are13dominant species. The distribution of average resource density index appears to be:Minzhong fishing ground> Minnan fishing ground> Mindong fishing ground.⑶The arrangement of historical data of Taiwan Strait show that: A total of1697species in40orders,206families and740genera are recorded in Taiwan Strait. Thedominant order is Perciformes with978species. There are1560(91.9%) warm waterspecies,128(7.5%) warm temperate species and9(0.6%) cold temperate species. Thehabitat type of fish can be grouped as follow:596(35.1%) continental sandy-muddydemersal fish,596(35.1%) reef-associated fish,249(14.7%) continentalbenthopelagic fish,158(9.3%) continental pelagic-neritic fish and98(5.8%) oceanicfish. Among them,181are migratory fishes and735are economic fishes. Thecommom species between Taiwan Strait with South China Sea is the most (91.9%),while with East China Sea is69.3%and with Yellow Sea is19.4%. Most of them are India-Western Pacific species (64.4%),26.8%are in Pacific only and7.8%are spreadall over the three oceans.⑷Isotherm of sea surface temperature in winter Taiwan Strait is in Southwest toNortheast trend. The temperature of SST is higher in Northeast and Southeast ofTaiwan Strait. The trend of isotherm of20centigrade and21centigrade begin atTaiwan Bank, through Penghu Islands and extend to northern Taiwan Strait. Weconsider that the sea area about eastern edge of Taiwan Bank, northern Penghu Islandsand southern24°N of west Taiwan Island is Indo-Malaysia subregion, in addition, theother sea area of Taiwan Strait is grouped as China-Japan subregion. The fish fauna ofTaiwan Strait is in both tropical and subtropical feature.