Abstract:

Nanguang River is a tributary of upper Yangtze River that provides important resources and food to various communities. To understand the current status of fish diversity within Nanguang River, we sampled the river and its primary tributaries six times from November 2017 to September 2018. A total of 64 fish species were collected, two of which (Percocypris pingi and Procypris rabaudi) are protected fish in Sichuan Province, 17 species were endemic to the upper Yangtze River, and 9 were listed as endangered or vulnerable species in Red List of China’s Vertebrates. The most dominant fish were small in size, of which Zacco platypus and Cyprinus carpio were most dominant. Additionally, the Nanguang River fish community possess considerable diversity based on Margalef species richness index, Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Simpson dominance index, and Pielou evenness index values. While there are obvious differences in fish composition across different reaches of the Nanguang River, dam construction and overfishing may have considerably impacted fish distribution and fish resources, the results of which our investigation presents.

Key words: Nanguang River, species diversity, fish resources, dominant species