Geographical Origin Traceability of Procambarus clarkii Based on Mineral Elements and Stable Isotopes

We explore the prospect of applying mineral element and stable isotope data in origin tracing Procambarus clarkii to establish an origin tracing system. Microwave digestion–atomic absorption spectrometry and stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry determined the contents of 14 mineral elements (Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, Mn, Zn, Cu, Fe, Sr, Ba, As, Se and Cd) and the abundances of C and N stable isotopes in the muscle tissue of P. clarkii from Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei regions. The one-way ANOVA and Duncan multiple comparison results revealed Na, Sr, Ba, Cu, Mn, Fe, Al, Se, δ(13)C and δ(15)N varied significantly between the three regions (p < 0.05). A systematic clustering analysis revealed the stable isotopes combined with the mineral elements easily distinguished samples into the three different regions. Multivariate statistical analysis allowed us to establish a discriminant model for distinguishing P. clarkii from the three geographical regions. When stable isotopes were combined with mineral elements, the accuracy of the linear discriminant analysis of the samples from Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei were 95%, 95% and 100%, respectively. The initial overall discriminant accuracy was 96.7%, and the cross-validation discriminant accuracy was 93.3%. Principal component analysis identified three main components which were based on eleven major factors, including Cu, Ba, Cd, Mn, δ(13)C, δ(15)N, Al and Mg, resulting in a cumulative variance contribution rate of 78.77%. We established a three-dimensional coordinate system using the three principal components to create scatter diagrams with the samples from the three regions in the coordinate system. The results revealed the samples clearly differentiated into the three regions. Therefore, mineral elements combined with stable isotopes can distinguish the regional origin of P. clarkii.