Biodiv Sci ›› 2020, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (10): 1202-1212.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2020009

• Original Papers: Animal Diversity • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Characteristics and historical changes of the fish assemblage in the Danjiangkou Reservoir

Jingpei Bai1, Geng Huang1,*(), Changjun Jiang1, Weicheng Zhang1, Qidong Wang2, Lunguang Yao1,*()   

  1. 1 Collaborative Innovation Center of Water Security for Water Source Region of Mid-line of South-to-North Diversion Project of Henan Province, Henan Provincal Key Laboratory of Ecological Security for Water Source Region of Mid-line of South-to-North Diversion Project, Henan Provincal Academician Workstation of Water Security, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang, Henan 473061
    2 State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072
  • Received:2020-01-08 Accepted:2020-05-19 Online:2020-10-20 Published:2020-10-20
  • Contact: Geng Huang,Lunguang Yao

Abstract:

To quantify the fish assemblage and its historical change, we conducted surveys in the Danjiangkou Reservoir in 2018 and 2019 based on multi-mesh gillnet samplings and catch by fisheries. A total of 33 fish species were collected, belonging to 5 orders, 11 families, and 29 genera, among which Cyprinidae were dominant, accounting for 63.6% of the total species captured. Spatial variation of diversity indices and catch per unit effort (CPUE, g·day -1·m -2) based on gillnet samplings were calculated among sampling sites. Currently, the Danjiangkou Reservoir is dominated by sedentary, lentic, omnivorous and carnivorous fishes. Compared with historical data from the 1950s and 1980s, the number of total fish species in the reservoir increased and then subsequently decreased. Whereas the proportion of omnivorous species, lotic species, and migratory species showed a continuous decline. The similarity indices of species composition between the present and the 1950s and 1980s were 0.35 and 0.29, respectively (both medium dissimilarity). These results indicate that the current fish assemblage in the Danjiangkou Reservoir has undergone significant changes in the last half-century trending toward smaller species and simpler assemblages, which may be attributed to human activities such as dam construction, fish stocking, overfishing, and the introduction of non-native fish species.

Key words: fish assemblage, historical change, ecological type, human activity, the Danjiangkou Reservoir