Zhixin Zhang

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Verified

Zhixin verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Researcher at South China Sea Institute Of Oceanology

Rapid climate change and ongoing habitat destruction pose a serious threat to global biodiversity. Understanding how species shift their geographical distributions in response to climate change is important for planning conservation actions for the biodiversity of isolated islands like Sri Lanka. Here, we used Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) modeling to p...

Traditional food systems support the livelihoods and well-being of rural Indigenous communities, particularly in remote, asset-poor areas. However, the diversity of wild foods is in global decline under the accelerating impacts of climate and environmental change with major but poorly understood implications for dependent communities. Here, we comb...

Global climate change is exacerbating biological invasions; however, the roles of genomic and epigenomic variations and their interactions in future climate adaptation remain underexplored. Using the model invasive ascidian Botryllus schlosseri across the Northern Hemisphere, we investigated genomic and epigenomic responses to future climates and d...

Nightly images offer a special data source for monitoring fishing activities. This study used images from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)/Operational Linescan System (OLS) to analyze the early development of lit fisheries in the open South China Sea (SCS), which mainly occurred around the Zhong Sha and Xi Sha Islands. Based on p...

Climate change has profound effects on the distribution of kelp forests in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. However, studies on the responses of kelps to climate change, particularly along the sub-Arctic regions of the Alaska coast, are limited. Eualaria fistulosa is a foundational kelp species in the Aleutian Islands, with an east-west distribution that...

In an era of ongoing biodiversity, it is critical to map biodiversity patterns in space and time for better‐informing conservation and management. Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely applied in various types of such biodiversity assessments. Cross‐validation represents a prevalent approach to assess the discrimination capacity of a target...

Correlative species distribution models (SDMs) are important tools to estimate species’ geographic distribution across space and time, but their reliability heavily relies on the availability and quality of occurrence data. Estimations can be biased when occurrences do not fully represent the environmental requirement of a species. We tested to wha...

Invasive non-native species are recognized as a serious threat to the native biodiversity of the areas they colonize. The subterranean spider Howaia mogera (Yaginuma 1972) (syn. Nesticella mogera) is considered a highly invasive non-native species rapidly expanding its geographical range from Asia across the European continent and to remote oceanic...

Global climate change is expected to accelerate biological invasions, necessitating accurate risk forecasting and management strategies. However, current invasion risk assessments often overlook adaptive genomic variation, which plays a significant role in the persistence and expansion of invasive populations. Here we used Molgula manhattensis, a h...

Prayer animal release (PAR)—a traditional “compassion‐based” religious practice of releasing captive animals into the wild to improve the karma of the releaser—has been regarded as a major anthropogenic pathway facilitating species invasions worldwide. However, comprehensive, quantitative assessments of PAR‐related invasion risks, crucial for the d...

Aim Climate change is affecting the geographic distributions of many species and researchers are increasingly relying on species distribution models (SDMs) to forecast species' redistributions under climate change. Such modelling studies, however, often ignore biotic interactions that shape species' geographic ranges. This is especially problematic...

Human-induced climate and land-use change impact species’ habitats and survival ability. A growing body of research uses species distribution models (SDMs) to predict potential changes in species ranges under global change. We constructed SDMs for 411 Chinese endemic vertebrates using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) modeling and four shared socioeconomic...

The leafy seadragon certainly is among evolution's most "beautiful and wonderful" species aptly named for its extraordinary camouflage mimicking its coastal seaweed habitat. However, limited information is known about the genetic basis of its phenotypes and conspicuous camouflage. Here, we revealed genomic signatures of rapid evolution and positive...

Slipper (Scyllaridae) and spiny (Palinuridae) lobsters show a complex life cycle with a planktonic larval phase, named phyllosoma. This unique larval form within Achelata (Decapoda) is characterized by a transparent dorsoventrally compressed body and a pair of antennae. This conspicuous morphology has been attributed to adaptive specialization of p...

Seagrass systems are in decline, mainly due to anthropogenic pressures and ongoing climate change. Implementing seagrass protection and restoration measures requires accurate assessment of suitable habitats. Commonly, such assessments have been performed using single-algorithm habitat suitability models, nearly always based on low environmental res...

Seahorses are one of the most amazing ovoviviparous fishes in the ocean because males, and not females, have evolved a brood pouch for incubating embryos. During male pregnancy, paternal seahorses need to develop effective immune protection for embryos in the brood pouch from potential infection by pathogens. Lysozymes (Lyz) are a group of antibact...

In the highly derived syngnathid fishes (pipefishes, seadragons & seahorses), the evolution of sex-role reversed brooding behavior culminated in the seahorse lineage’s male pregnancy, whose males feature a specialized brood pouch into which females deposit eggs during mating. Then, eggs are intimately engulfed by a placenta-like tissue that facilit...

Many studies have detected realized climatic niche shifts during range changes; this is challenging the fundamental theory of the niche conservatism hypothesis (NCH) and the usefulness of the ecological niche model (ENM) for predicting the distributions of species in space and time by tracking environmental change. Biotic factors such as predatory...

Unlabelled: Mariculture has been one of the fastest-growing global food production sectors over the past three decades. With the congestion of space and deterioration of the environment in coastal regions, offshore aquaculture has gained increasing attention. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are two important a...

Aquatic ecosystems (both marine and freshwater) have long served as model systems for exploring the role of environmental stressors on organismal performance and survival, the biogeographic distributions of populations and species, and ultimately the diversity, functioning, and stability of ecosystems (Adams, 2002; Forbes, 1887; MacArthur & Wilson,...

Background Anthropogenic changes in the environment are increasingly threatening the sustainability of socioecological systems on a global scale. As stewards of the natural capital of over a quarter of the world’s surface area, Indigenous Peoples (IPs), are at the frontline of these changes. Indigenous socioecological systems (ISES) are particularl...

Climate change can affect fish individuals or schools, and consequently the fisheries. Studying future changes of fish distribution and abundance helps the scientific management of fisheries. The dynamic bioclimate envelope model (DBEM) was used to identify the “environmental preference profiles” of the studied species based on outputs from three E...

Climate change has the potential to greatly alter species distributions and threatens biodiversity in marine ecosystems. Mapping changes in species distribution patterns under climate change will help facilitate management strategies to maintain ecosystem structure and function. The lizardfish Harpadon nehereus is an aggressive predator that has ex...

The genetic adaptations of various organisms to heterogeneous environments in the northwestern Pacific remain poorly understood. Heterogeneous genomic divergence among populations may reflect environmental selection. Advancing our understanding of the mechanisms by which organisms adapt to different temperatures in response to climate change and pr...

The iconic phenotype of seadragons includes leaf-like appendages, a toothless tubular mouth, and male pregnancy involving incubation of fertilized eggs on an open “brood patch.” We de novo–sequenced male and female genomes of the common seadragon ( Phyllopteryx taeniolatus ) and its closely related species, the alligator pipefish ( Syngnathoides bi...

Seagrasses play a vital role in structuring coastal marine ecosystems, but their distributional range and genetic diversity have declined rapidly over the past decades. In order to improve conservation of seagrass species, it is important to predict how climate change may impact their ranges. Such predictions are typically made with correlative spe...

Aim Theory predicts that ecological specialization should be rare in marine ecosystems, given that dispersal barriers are less effective in the vastness of the sea compared with those in terrestrial settings. This paradigm, however, hardly fits with classical theories of local adaptation, raising the question of how marine diversity originates in a...

Seagrasses play a vital role in structuring coastal marine ecosystems, but their distributional range and genetic diversity have declined rapidly over the past decades. In order to improve conservation of seagrass species, it is important to predict how climate change may impact their ranges. Such predictions are typically made with correlative spe...

Aim As climate change presents a major threat to biodiversity in the next decades, it is critical to assess its impact on species habitat suitability to inform biodiversity conservation. Species distribution models (SDMs) are a widely used tool to assess climate change impacts on species’ geographical distributions. As the name of these models sugg...

The giant salamanders (Cryptobranchoidea) are iconic species for the sustainable management of freshwater biodiversity, and the initiatives for their sustainable management are much broader in scope than with any other amphibians. They involve three nations that span the Pacific Ocean, working to manage both wild populations and those in conservati...

In recent decades, the relationships between species distributional shifts and climate change have been investigated at various geographic scales, yet there is still a gap in understanding the impacts of climate change on marine commercial fish species surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula. The dynamic bioclimate envelope model (DBEM) is a mechanisti...

To obtain realistic forecasts of the impacts of climate change on species habitat suitability, novel approaches based on species distribution models (SDMs) are being developed and scrutinized. We argue here that, when dealing with data from long-term monitoring programmes, incorporating a temporal weight on the occurrence points may result in a mor...

Aim Ocean warming has been observed in a number of marine ecosystems and is believed to influence marine species in many ways, such as through changes in distribution range and abundance. In this study, we investigated the potential impacts of climate change on the distribution and maximum catch potential of 34 warm water fishes from 2000 to 2060....

Invasive alien species represent a serious threat to global biodiversity, causing considerable damage to native ecosystems. To better assess invasion risks, it is essential to better understand the biological processes that determine the success or failure of invasions. The catadromous Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis, whose native distributi...

Ocean warming associated with global climate change renders marine ecosystems susceptible to biological invasions. Here, we used species distribution models to project habitat suitability for eight invasive ascidians under present-day and future climate scenarios. Distance to shore and maximum sea surface temperature were identified as the most imp...

1. Being the largest extant amphibian in the world, the IUCN Critically Endangered Chinese giant salamander Andrias davidianus is a charismatic species with great international public interest. While threats such as commercial overexploitation and habitat degradation have been extensively documented to affect natural populations of A. davidianus, s...

Invasive alien species and climate change are two of the most serious global environmental threats. In particular, it is of great interest to understand how changing climates could impact the distribution of invaders that pose serious threats to ecosystems and human activities. In this study, we developed ensemble species distribution models for pr...

Aim Species distribution models (SDMs) are an effective tool to explore the potential distribution of terrestrial, freshwater and marine organisms; however, SDMs have been seldom used to model ichthyoplankton distributions, and thus, our understanding of how larval stages of fishes will respond to climate change is still limited. Here, we developed...

Marking fish with fluorochrome dyes has the potential to produce detectable marks in otoliths, scales, fin rays, fin spines, and other bony structures based on differential staining of chemical dyes, and it is a widely used technique for mass-marking fish that included both teleosts and elasmobranchs. This technique, which has relatively economic a...

Climate change is one of the most serious global environmental problems and it is of great importance to understand how species respond to climate change. Species distribution models (SDMs) have been regarded as an effective tool to examine the impacts of climate change on species' potential distribution. In this study, we developed a SDM for a mar...

The Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis (H. Milne Edwards, 1853) (Brachyura: Varunidae) is an important commercial species in Asia, but it has become invasive in North America and Europe, being responsible for dramatic ecological and economic consequences. It is essential to understand its population growth potential in order to effectively cont...

Invasive alien species have posed substantial threats to freshwater ecosystems and are generally difficult and cost-intensive to eradicate once established. Therefore, it is of great importance to identify their potential distribution and take preventive actions. Species distribution modelling has been regarded as a powerful tool to identify areas...

The Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis is an invasive species outside native range and represents a substantial threat to recipient ecosystems. It is regarded as an invasive species in Japan and has recently been found in Tokyo Bay, but little is known about its possible impacts on native species, especially on the congener Japanese mitten crab...

Cannibalism is ubiquitous in crustaceans but relatively little is known about the degree of cannibalism in the Japanese mitten crab, Eriocheir japonica (De Haan, 1835). In this study, we examined the possibility of cannibalism in intermolt Japanese mitten crab in relation to predator–prey size difference, predator sex, prey density, and presence of...

To improve release techniques of Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, for the purpose of stock enhancement, the substrate preference and burial behaviour over a range of sand grain sizes were investigated under laboratory conditions. Ten 12-hr trials (i.e. 10 experimental groups), which, respectively, contained two different levels of substra...

Allometric growth patterns and the relative condition factor are important considerations in the life history of crustaceans. We determined the somatic growth patterns and relative condition factor in the Japanese mitten crab Eriocheir japonica (De Haan, 1835). The morphological sexual maturity size in this species was determined based on the chela...

Calcein (CAL) from 50 to 250 mg/l and alizarin complexone (ALC) from 100 to 300 mg/l were used for double immersion marking of juvenile qingbo Spinibarbus sinensis. With the exception of the scales, double immersion for 24 h produced detectable double marks in otoliths (sagittas and asterisci), barbs, fin rays (dorsal, pectoral, ventral, anal, and...

Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the influences of size difference, fish density, shelter density, starvation time and light intensity on cannibalism among the fry of black rockfish, Sebastes schlegelii. Cannibalism of black rockfish did not occur at any level of other factors without sufficient size difference. Cannibalism rate d...

Autotomy is a common phenomenon in crustaceans and has been extensively studied. The Japanese mitten crab, Eriocheir japonica, is an important fisheries species in Japan, but autotomy patterns of this species have seldom been reported. Therefore, in this study, we examined the autotomy patterns for E. japonica in both growth and reproduction habita...

To predict the occurrence of cannibalism in the culture of larval black rockfish, Sebastes schlegelii, we developed a regression model based on morphometric measurements. First, 156 black rockfish were measured to obtain a theoretical model, that is LT prey = 0.624 LT cannibal + 0.835. Then, 202 trials of paired fish, together with 31 pairs of cann...

Calcein (CAL) and alizarin red S (ARS) at concentrations of 50-200 and 150-300 mg/l, respectively, were used for immersion marking juvenile grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idellus. With the exception of non-lateral line scales from the 150 mg/l ARS treatment and lateral line scales from the 150, 200 mg/l ARS treatments, immersion for 24 h produced dete...