To fill in the gaps in knowledge as to how individual sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus behave consuming eukaryotic food sources in natural environments, eukaryotic communities in the faeces of sea cucumbers and sediments were analysed through one whole year based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the organelle genomes. A total of 390 eukaryotic features were obtained, and 99.7% of the features were assigned to chloroplasts. The eukaryotic communities in faeces and sediments showed seasonal fluctuations through one whole year based on Bray‐Curtis distance and community composition. Comparison of eukaryotic communities between faeces and sediments showed that 12 families including Chaetocerotaceae and Laminariaceae were more abundant in faeces than in sediments, suggesting that sea cucumbers may choose sediment containing these algal taxa more often compared with others in natural environments. All features of Laminariaceae were assigned to Saccharina japonica, which is consistent with the fact that this alga is one of the most suitable diets in the aquaculture of A. japonicus. Assessments of individual 16S amplicon sequences of both faecal and sediment samples could be an alternative tool to help us understand dynamic feeding behaviours of sea cucumber populations in contributing to bioresource conservation and development of a superior approach to aquaculture.

中文翻译：

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每年对单个海参（Apostichopus japonicus）的粪便16S扩增子测序证明了在自然环境中针对真核生物的摄食行为

填补关于个体海参刺参知识的知识空白根据自然环境中食用真核生物的食物来源，基于细胞器基因组的16S rRNA基因测序，分析了一年中海参和沉积物粪便中的真核生物群落。总共获得了390个真核生物特征，其中99.7％的特征被分配给了叶绿体。根据布雷-柯蒂斯距离和群落组成，粪便和沉积物中的真核生物群落在整个一年中都表现出季节性波动。粪便和沉积物之间的真核生物群落的比较表明，粪便中的12个科（包括菊科和海藻科）比沉积物中的丰富，这表明与自然环境中相比，海参选择含这些藻类的沉积物的频率更高。日本糖藻（Saccharina japonica）与这种藻类是日本刺槐（A. japonicus）水产养殖中最合适的饮食之一的事实相符。评估粪便和沉积物样品的单个16S扩增子序列可能是一种替代工具，可以帮助我们了解海参种群的动态饲养行为，从而有助于保护生物资源和开发优良的水产养殖方法。