ALBERT

Beschreibung:    The economic value of ecosystem services of vegetated habitats (seagrass and macroalgal beds) has been estimated to be among the highest of the various ecosystems on earth. However, fish production has not been included in the evaluations due to the difficulty of quantitative estimation of fish production in the field. In the present study, annual production and economic value of wild juvenile black rockfish, Sebastes cheni , a dominant fish species in seagrass and macroalgal beds in the central Seto Inland Sea were estimated. Juvenile S. cheni migrated into vegetated habitats at about 20 mm total length (TL) and grew up to about 60 mm TL by late May. Juvenile abundance was highest in April (2007) or March (2008). Eight cohorts with the same extrusion period (each cohort covering a 10-day period) were identified using otolith daily increments. The annual estimates of S. cheni juvenile production were 13,080 g ha −1 year −1 in 2007 and 18,360 g −1  year −1 in 2008. Based on the unit price of artificially raised S. cheni juveniles, the economic value of the annual wild juvenile production was converted to 654,000 JPY (Japanese yen: 100 JPY = ca. 1 USD) ha −1 year −1 for 2007 and 918,000 JPY ha −1 year −1 for 2008. Analyses of stomach contents and stable isotope (δ 13 C or δ 15 N) showed that juvenile S. cheni were highly dependent on copepods. The planktonic trophic pathway originating from phytoplankton supports the majority of the juvenile black rockfish production during the post-migration period (20–60 mm TL) in the seagrass and macroalgal beds through the production of copepod zooplankton. The total economic value of the ecosystem services of the vegetated habitat is suggested to be much higher than estimates in previous studies if the provisioning and regulating services which originate from fish production were included in the estimates. Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-10 DOI 10.1007/s10452-011-9360-1 Authors Yasuhiro Kamimura, Takehara Marine Science Station, Center for Education and Research of Setouchi Field Science, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, 5-8-1 Minato-machi, Takehara, Hiroshima, 725-0024 Japan Akihide Kasai, Division of Applied Bioscience, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8502 Japan Jun Shoji, Takehara Marine Science Station, Center for Education and Research of Setouchi Field Science, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, 5-8-1 Minato-machi, Takehara, Hiroshima, 725-0024 Japan Journal Aquatic Ecology Online ISSN 1573-5125 Print ISSN 1386-2588