A qualitative understanding of the long‐term variation in the population dynamics of Yellow Sea (YS) herring is particularly important for clarifying the evolutionary processes and driving mechanisms of the YS large marine ecosystem. Unfortunately, because of a lack of long‐term, continuous, and simultaneous monitoring data, the specific driving processes and mechanisms of climate effects on the population dynamics of YS herring remain largely unknown. In response to this scientific issue, we preliminarily propose the idea of reconstructing long‐term changes in YS herring abundance over the past 590 years (AD 1417–2004) based on historical documents and attempt to explore the impacts of climate on the population. Our results show that YS herring abundance maintained at a relatively high level from AD 1417 to 1870 (during the Little Ice Age); in contrast, the population declined significantly from AD 1870 to 2004 at different rates. In addition, we also found that there were strong relationships between the population abundance of YS herring and the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and drought/flood cycles. We suggest that the fluctuations in YS herring abundance may be influenced by ocean–climatic circulation shifts throughout the North Pacific, especially the PDO.

中文翻译：

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过去590年中来自北太平洋西部黄海的太平洋鲱鱼（Clupea pallasii）的丰度长期变化及其与气候的关系

对黄海（YS）鲱鱼种群动态的长期变化进行定性了解对于阐明YS大型海洋生态系统的演化过程和驱动机制尤为重要。不幸的是，由于缺乏长期，连续和同时的监测数据，气候对YS鲱鱼种群动态的具体驱动过程和机制仍然未知。针对这一科学问题，我们初步提出了基于历史文献重建过去590年（公元1417-2004年）YS鲱鱼丰度的长期变化的想法，并尝试探索气候对人口的影响。我们的结果表明，从公元1417年到1870年（小冰河时期），YS鲱鱼的丰度一直保持较高水平。相反，从公元1870年到2004年，人口以不同的速度显着下降。此外，我们还发现，YS鲱鱼的种群丰度与太平洋年代际振荡（PDO）和干旱/洪水周期之间存在很强的关系。我们建议，YS鲱鱼丰度的波动可能受到整个北太平洋特别是PDO的海洋-气候环流变化的影响。