Mineral element and stable isotope characteristics of Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) from emerging origins

The Chinese mitten crab ( Eriocheir sinensis ) is an economically significant freshwater species in China. This study collected crabs from Zhenlai (Jilin Province), Bosten Lake (Xinjiang Province), and the traditional production area of Yangcheng Lake (Jiangsu Province). Origin-specific fingerprints of 11 mineral elements (Na, Mg, K, Ca, Sr, Ba, Al, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn) that were stably detected above the instrument's limit of detection across all three origins, along with two stable isotopes ( δ 13 C and δ 15 N), were analyzed using the third pereiopod and claw meat samples. Crabs from different origins exhibited significant differences of Analysis of Variance in elemental and isotope compositions, demonstrating distinct biogeochemical fingerprints. Linear discriminant analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis achieved high origin-identification accuracy, and support vector machine and K-nearest neighbors achieved high discrimination accuracy (96.67% and 98.33%, respectively) after Z -score or mean normalization, with F1-scores exceeding 0.97. All samples demonstrated no harmful element contamination. This approach reliably identifies origin-specific biogeochemical fingerprints and supports food safety assessment These findings support the development of the E. sinensis industry in the emerging origins.