2022 Volume 69 Issue 2 Pages 93-101
It has been thought that food availability for fish larvae was poor in the Kuroshio because of the low standing stocks of plankton in the oligotrophic conditions under thermal stratification throughout the year. Despite a potential risk or disadvantage for larval survival and growth, Kuroshio and its neighbouring waters are nursery grounds for the early life stages of various fishes. Here, we compared the growth activity of fish larvae among 15 taxonomic groups, including 11 families in the Kuroshio and its neighbouring waters, based on protein synthetase activity and protein contents. Protein-specific (spAARS), individual-based aminoacyl tRNA synthetase activities (iAARS), and protein contents (PRO) of fish larvae ranged from 2 to 232 nmol PPi mg protein−1 h−1, from 1 to 21 μmol PPi ind−1 d−1, and from <1 to 26 mg ind−1, respectively. spAARS, iAARS and PRO were variable among the taxonomic groups and were not classified between mesopelagic groups and the others. Compiling these measurements among all taxonomic groups, a significant negative correlation was found for spAARS to PRO. The correlation showed no significant difference between the Kuroshio and its neighbouring coastal waters, indicating that growth activities to fish larvae body mass were comparable in the Kuroshio and its neighbouring waters. Based on nonmetric multidimensional scaling on spAARS, iAARS and PRO among 15 taxonomic groups, two different groups were classified for fish larvae, represented by the high iAARS under the high PRO but low spAARS (Group 1) and the low iAARS under the low PRO but high spAARS (Group 2), representing the different life strategies for larval growth among the taxonomic groups. The present findings suggest that these biochemical indices are useful for evaluating the growth activity of fish larvae among various taxonomic groups and that food availability is not poor enough to support larval growth in the Kuroshio and its neighbouring waters.
