Aquaculture Strategy and Genetic Diversity of Argopecten irradians concentricus in Beibu Gulf, China

<i>Argopecten irradians concentricus</i> has become one of the pillar industries in the aquaculture of the Beibu Gulf since it was introduced into China in 1991. This study examined how stocking density and culture site affects growth in breeding populations, compared their growth performance and genetic diversity within control populations, and identified optimal culture locations for <i>A. i. concentricus</i> in the Beibu Gulf. The environmental investigation results revealed that among the three aquaculture sites of Beihai (BH), Qinzhou (QZ) and Fangchenggang (FCG), the fluctuation ranges of salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen at the BH site were relatively narrower. The sum of all algal genus abundances of the three sites were 155,370 cells∙L^-1, 931 cells∙L^-1, and 47,957 cells∙L^-1, respectively. <i>Chaetoceros</i> was the sole dominant algal genus in both BH and FCG, while <i>Pleurosigma</i> was the only dominant genus in QZ. The experimental results of growth demonstrated a significant negative correlation between growth rate and stocking density (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The mortalities of the QZ populations were significantly higher than those of the BH and FCG populations (<i>p</i> < 0.05). In comparison with the control populations, the breeding populations exhibited better growth performance but lower genetic diversity. FCG is a suitable location for cultivating the breeding population of <i>A. i. concentricus</i>. The findings of this study can serve as a reference for further understanding of the aquaculture strategy and genetic diversity of <i>A. i. concentricus</i> in the Beibu Gulf, China.