Stream channelization effects on fish abundance and species composition

• Main Author: Johansson, Ulf
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för fysik, kemi och biologi 2013
• Subjects: Channelization; Rheophilic species; nemoboreal streams; Nordic multi-mesh Stream Survey Net; lotic; relative abundance; fish community; limnophilic
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-97292

Streams are important habitats, providing shelter and feeding opportunities for a wide range of organisms. The species depending on running waters includes a wide array of fish species, using these waters for their whole or parts of their lifecycle. Streams are also the subject of different anthropogenic impact, e.g. hydropower development. Hydropower development usually means lost connectivity, altered flow regimes and channelization. Channelization is one of the major factors causing stream habitat loss and degradation and thereby a threat to biodiversity of running waters. In the present study, the ecological impact of channelization on the fish fauna along a gradient of channelization severeness was examined. Besides channelization, stream velocity and depth were taken in to account. The study was carried out in two adjacent nemoboreal streams, Gavleån and Testeboån. The study was conducted between the 6th of June and the 10th of October 2012 at 15 sites. Sites were selected using historical maps and field observations and graded 0-3 depending on the degree of channelization. Fish community were sampled with, Nordic multi-mesh Stream Survey Net (NSSN). In all, 1.465 fish were captured, representing 15 species and seven families. The sites differed in species richness, abundance and proportion of individuals. Based on the results from rarefaction curves and ANOVA, channelization was found to be the main factor affecting the fish biota, both in abundance as well as species richness and composition. In general the rheophilic species declined along the gradient of increasing channelization severeness, while limnophilic species increased