Li Ang, Bai Yongan, Zhu Ling, Xue Suyan, Li Jiaqi, Li Xianglun, Liu Lulei, Liu Longzhen, Mao Yuze
State Key Laboratory of Mariculture Biobreeding and Sustainable Goods, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China.
Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, 266237, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 9;15(1):16203. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-01269-8.
Understanding the diet composition and feeding habits of bivalve shellfish is crucial for developing conservation measures to enhance their resources. This is particularly important for the main economic species in shellfish-producing regions. In this study, we analyzed the stomach contents composition of the two main economic shellfish in Geligang, specifically Meretrix meretrix and Mactra veneriformis, using high-throughput sequencing. The results revealed that 956 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were common to both M. meretrix and M. veneriformis, with 1117 OTUs unique to M. meretrix and 412 OTUs unique to M. veneriformis. We identified a total of 50 bait organisms from 11 phyla. The main taxa in the stomach contents of M. meretrix were Chlorophyta, Cryptophyta, Pyrrophyta and Bacillariophyta, while Cryptophyta, Chlorophyta, Pyrrophyta and Chrysophyta dominated the stomach contents of M. veneriformis. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis indicated less compositional variety in the stomach contents of M. meretrix compared to M. veneriformis. Additionally, the Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size (LEfSe) results showed a significant difference in food composition between the two species. Specifically, M. meretrix and M. veneriformis preferred feeding on Bacillariophyta, Chlorophyta, and Cryptophyta, while M. veneriformis favored Chrysophyta. Overall, our study provides fundamental insights for ecological research on feeding habits and resource conservation of M. meretrix and M. veneriformis in Geligang, which can inform the development of effective conservation measures for the shellfish resources.
了解双壳贝类的饮食组成和摄食习性对于制定保护措施以增加其资源至关重要。这对于贝类产区的主要经济物种尤为重要。在本研究中，我们使用高通量测序分析了蛤仔港两种主要经济贝类，即文蛤和四角蛤蜊的胃内容物组成。结果显示，文蛤和四角蛤蜊共有956个可操作分类单元（OTU），文蛤独有1117个OTU，四角蛤蜊独有412个OTU。我们共鉴定出来自11个门的50种饵料生物。文蛤胃内容物中的主要类群为绿藻门、隐藻门、甲藻门和硅藻门，而四角蛤蜊胃内容物中则以隐藻门、绿藻门、甲藻门和金藻门为主。非度量多维尺度分析（NMDS）表明，与四角蛤蜊相比，文蛤胃内容物的组成多样性较低。此外，线性判别分析效应大小（LEfSe）结果显示，这两个物种的食物组成存在显著差异。具体而言，文蛤和四角蛤蜊都偏好摄食硅藻门、绿藻门和隐藻门，而四角蛤蜊更偏爱金藻门。总体而言，我们的研究为蛤仔港文蛤和四角蛤蜊的摄食习性及资源保护的生态研究提供了基础见解，可为贝类资源有效保护措施的制定提供参考。
