Introduction Monitoring of estuarine fish biodiversity is often constrained by the inherent limitations of traditional survey methods and the complex, dynamic environmental conditions of estuarine habitats. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has emerged as a robust molecular tool for aquatic biodiversity assessment. Nevertheless, its complementary potential to conventional bottom trawling remains understudied in estuarine...

The large yellow croaker, Larimichthys crocea , was once the most abundant and economically important marine fish in China. Thus far, it has also been the most successful mariculture fish species in China. However, its wild stock severely declined in the 1970s because of overexploitation, and therefore hatchery release has been carried out for stock enhancement since 2000. As a migratory fish, large yellow croaker was divided...