Assessing Japanese eel (Anguilla japonice) resource in Taiwan by using Habitat Quality Index (HQI)
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Hsu, Nai-Chung
Abstract
The Japanese eel Anguilla japonica is an important aquaculture species in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. Eel fry used in aquaculture can only be obtained via the field capture of glass eels in estuaries due to the high cost of artificial propagation. However, eel stock has been in rapid decline since 1970s. Assessing continent habitat degradation and estimate natural eel resource in river thus become important for establishing eel management plans. Shao et al. (2015) developed a novel index called habitat quality index (HQI) and suggested that HQI could be used for indirect, fast and large-scale eel abundance evaluation. In present study, we tried to strengthen the relationship between HQI and eel abundance in the rivers of Taiwan, then using HQI to estimate the overall eel resource in Taiwan, and to assess the long-term eel resource variation (between1970s-2010s). According to the result of Pearson’s correlation analysis, the correlation between HQI and eel resource was significant, thence could be used for estimating eel abundance in rivers. The total HQI from twenty six rivers in 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s is 106.9, 40.7, 31.1, 28.7 and 38.1. The total HQI between 1970s-2010s in twenty six rivers of Taiwan decreased 64.3%. The proximate Japanese eel resource in 26 rivers of Taiwan in current status is 44601 fish. This Japanese eel resource assessment method could also be used to assess the eel resource in other country.
Subjects
Japanese eel
habitat quality index
satellite remote sensing
river pollution index
effective habitat area
habitat destruction
Type
thesis
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