Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Low-head dams facilitate the native invasion of downstream fishes to subtropical headwater streams, China

  • Primary Research Paper
  • Published:
Hydrobiologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Low-head dams are becoming a ubiquitous feature of the landscape of headwater streams. The ecological effects of low-head dams have long been studied; however, most studies have ignored the invasion of native-invasive species commonly occurring in large streams. Based on fish data from 25 first-order streams within an important tributary of the Yangtze River, we investigated whether and how low-head dams facilitate the invasion of native-invasive fish to headwater streams in regions where native fish species are completely dominant. We found that the ratio of native-invasive species (Ratio) was significantly higher in impoundments than in free-flowing segments, suggesting that low-head dams facilitate the invasion of native-invasive fish. We demonstrated that the niche and dispersal processes affected the seasonal variation in Ratio differently. In addition, changes in the Ratio using abundance data were significantly related to landscape conditions and dam size in the dry season and only to landscape conditions in the wet season, suggesting that the latter greatly underestimated the blocking effect of low-head dams on fish dispersal. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that increasing anthropogenic landscape disturbances in catchments where low-head dams were located exacerbated the invasion of native-invasive species are commonly found in large streams.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

References

  • Anas, M. U. M. & N. E. Mandrak, 2021. Drivers of native and non-native freshwater fish richness across North America: disentangling the roles of environmental, historical and anthropogenic factors. Global and Ecology Biogeography 30: 1232–1244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bain, M. B., J. F. Finn & H. E. Booke, 1985. Quantifying stream substrate for habitat analysis studies. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 5: 499–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benone, N. L., R. Ligeiro, L. Juen & L. F. A. Montag, 2018. Role of environmental and spatial processes structuring fish assemblages in streams of the eastern Amazon. Marine and Freshwater Research 69: 243–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blanchet, F. G., P. Legendre & D. Borcard, 2008. Forward selection of explanatory variables. Ecology 89: 2623–2632.

  • Brewitt, P. K. & C. L. M. Colwyn, 2020. Little dams, big problems: the legal and policy issues of nonjurisdictional dams. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water 7: e1393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, B. L., C. Wahl & C. M. Swan, 2018. Experimentally disentangling the influence of dispersal and habitat filtering on benthic invertebrate community structure. Freshwater Biology 63: 48–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burrell, T. K., J. M. O’Brien, S. E. Graham, K. S. Simon, J. S. Harding & A. R. McIntosh, 2014. Riparian shading mitigates stream eutrophication in agricultural catchments. Freshwater Science 33: 73–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, D. S., I. D. M. Gunn, H. E. K. Pringle, G. M. Siriwardena, P. Taylor, S. J. Thackeray, N. J. Willby & L. Carvalho, 2020. Invasions of freshwater ecosystems is promoted by network connectivity to hotspots of human activity. Global and Ecology Biogeography 29: 645–655.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chu, L., W. Z. Wang, R. Zhu, Y. Z. Yan, Y. F. Chen & L. Z. Wang, 2015. Variation in fish assemblages across impoundments of low-head dams in headwater streams of the Qingyi River, China: effects of abiotic factors and native invaders. Environmental Biology of Fishes 98: 101–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Comte, L., T. Grantham & A. Ruhi, 2021. Human stabilization of river flows is linked with fish invasions across the USA. Global Ecology and Biogeography 30: 725–737.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Copp, G. H., L. Vilizzi & R. E. Gozlan, 2010. The demography of introduction pathways, propagule pressure and occurrences of non-native freshwater fish in England. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 20: 595–601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cote, D., D. G. Kehler, C. Bourne & Y. F. Wiersma, 2009. A new measure of longitudinal connectivity for stream networks. Landscape Ecology 24: 101–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dai, B., Z. Jiang, C. Wang, S. I. S. Matsuzaki & L. Zhou, 2020. Abundance-based dissimilarity measurements reveal higher heterogeneity of fish communities in the lotic habitats of the Yangtze-Caizi transitional floodplain. Ecological Indicators 112: 106122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dala-Corte, R. B., X. Giam, J. D. Olden, F. G. Becker, T. F. Guimarães & A. S. Melo, 2016. Revealing the pathways by which agricultural land-use affects stream fish communities in South Brazilian grasslands. Freshwater Biology 61: 1921–1934.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dala-Corte, R. B., F. G. Becker & A. S. Melo, 2017. The importance of metacommunity processes for long-term turnover of riffle-dwelling fish assemblages depends on spatial position within a dendritic network. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Scinces 74: 101–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dala-Corte, R. B., A. S. Melo, F. G. Becker & F. Teresa, 2019. Testing the native invasion hypothesis to explain anthropogenic influence on stream fish assemblages. Aquatic Sciences 81: 66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Fries, L., M. Camana, S. M. Hartz & F. G. Becker, 2021. Heterogeneous movement by a small non-migratory stream fish. Environmental Biology of Fishes 101: 1205–1217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ding, C. Z., X. M. Jiang, Z. C. Xie & S. Brosse, 2017. Seventy-five years of biodiversity decline of fish assemblages in Chinese isolated plateau lakes: widespread introductions and extirpations of narrow endemics lead to regional loss of dissimilarity. Diversity and Distributions 23: 171–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edge, C. B., M. Fortin, D. A. Jackson, D. Lawrise, L. Stanfield & N. Shrestha, 2017. Habitat alteration and habitat fragmentation differentially affect beta diversity of stream fish communities. Landscape Ecology 32: 647–662.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erős, T., 2017. Scaling fish metacommunities in stream networks: Synthesis and future research avenues. Community Ecology 18: 72–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erős, T., L. Comte, A. F. Filipe, A. P. A. RuhiTedesco, U. Brose, M. Fortin, X. Giam, K. Lrving, C. Jacquet, S. Larsen, S. Sharma & J. D. Olden, 2020. Effects of nonnative species on the stability of riverine fish communities. Ecography 43: 1156–1166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fencl, J. S., M. E. Mather, K. H. Costigan & M. D. Daniels, 2015. How big of an effect do small dams have? Using geomorphological footprints to quantify spatial impact of low-head dams and identify patterns of across-dam variation. PLOS ONE 10: e0141210.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fernandes, I. M., R. Hernriques-Silva, J. Zuanon & P. R. Peres-Neto, 2014. Spatiotemporal dynamics in a seasonal metacommunity structure is predictable: the cause of floodplain-fish communities. Ecography 37: 464–475.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frehse, F. A., O. L. F. Weyl & J. R. S. Vitule, 2021. Differential use of artificial by native and non-native fish species in neotropical reservoirs. Hydrobiologia 848: 2355–2367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He, F., M. Thieme, C. Zarfl, G. Grill, B. Lehner, Z. Hogan, K. Tockner & S. C. Jähnigah, 2021. Impacts of loss of free-flowing rivers on global freshwater megafauna. Biological Conservation 263: 109335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hitchman, S. M., M. E. Mather, J. M. Smith & J. S. Fencl, 2018. Habitat mosaics and path analysis can improve biological conservation of aquatic biodiversity in ecosystems with low-head dams. Science of the Total Environment 619–620: 221–231.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hitt, N. P. & P. L. Angermeier, 2008. Evidence for fish dispersal from spatial analysis of stream network topology. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 27: 304–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, P. T., J. D. Olden & M. J. V. Zanden, 2008. Dam invaders: impoundments facilitate biological invasions into freshwaters. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 6: 357–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, P. E., T. Champneys, J. Vevers, L. Börger, J. C. Svendsen, S. Consuegra, J. Jones & C. G. Leaniz, 2021. Selective effects of small barriers on river-resident fish. Journal of Applied Ecology 58: 1487–1498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jumani, S. J., M. J. Deitch, D. Kaplan, E. P. Anderson, J. Krishnaswamy, V. Lecours & M. R. Whiles, 2020. River fragmentation and flow alteration metrics: a review of methods and directions for future research. Environmental Research Letters 15: 123009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirk, M. A., B. M. Maitland & F. J. Rahel, 2020. Spatial scale, reservoirs and nonnative species influence the homogenization and differentiation of Great Plains — Rocky Mountain fish faunas. Hydrobiologia 847: 3743–3757.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leibold, M. A., M. Holyoak, N. Mouquet, P. Amarasekare, J. M. Chase, M. F. Hoopes, R. D. Holt, J. B. Shurin, R. Law, D. Tilman, M. Loreau & A. Gonzalez, 2004. The metacommunity concept: a framework for multi-scale community ecology. Ecology Letters 7: 601–613.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, Q., Y. R. Li, M. D. Jiang, Y. X. Wang, D. P. Xu, L. Chu & Y. Z. Yan, 2021. Effects of low-head dams on fish assemblages in subtropical streams: Context dependence on local habitat and landscape conditions. Ecological Indicators 121: 107190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, Q., X. Li, H. Fu, K. Tan, Y. Ge, L. Chu, C. Zhang & Y. Yan, 2022. Role of impoundments created by low-Head dams in affecting fish assemblages in subtropical headwater streams in China. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10: 916873.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liew, J. H., H. H. Tan & D. C. J. Yeo, 2016. Dammed rivers: Impoundments facilitate fish invasions. Freshwater Biology 61: 1421–1429.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, C., D. He & Y. J. D. ChenOlden, 2017. Species invasions threaten the antiquity of China’s freshwater fish fauna. Diversity and Distribution 23: 556–566.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y., Y. R. Wang, Q. Zhu, Y. R. Li, B. Kang, L. Chu & Y. Z. Yan, 2019. Effects of low-head dams on fish assemblages in subtropical streams: Context dependence on species category and data type. River Research and Applications 35: 396–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • López-Delgado, E. O., K. Winemiller & F. A. Villa-Navarro, 2018. Do metacommunity theories explain spatial variation in fish assemblage structure in a pristine tropical river? Freshwater Biology 64: 367–379.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, J. L., D. L. Strayer, J. B. Wallace, S. L. Eggert, G. S. Helfman & N. E. Leonard, 2007. The contribution of headwater streams to biodiversity in river networks. Journal of the American Resources Association 43: 86–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mozzaquattro, L. B., R. B. Dala-Corte, F. G. Becker & A. S. Melo, 2020. Effects of spatial distance, physical barriers, and habitat on a stream fish metacommunity. Hydrobiologia 847: 3039–3054.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nippgen, F., B. L. McGlynn, L. A. Marshall & R. E. Emanuel, 2011. Landscape structure and climate influences on hydrologic response. Water Resources Research 47: W12528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oksanen, J., 2015. Multivariate analysis of ecological communities in R: vegan tutorial. University of Oulu, Finland. Available at: http://cc.oulu.fi/~jarioksa/opetus/metodi/vegantutor/.

  • Pfauserová, N., O. Slavík, P. Horký, J. Turek & T. Randák, 2021. Spatial distribution of native fish species in tributaries is altered by the dispersal of non-native species from reservoirs. Science of the Total Environment 755: 143108.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Poff, N. L. & D. D. Hart, 2002. How dams may vary and why it matters for the emerging science of dam removal. Bioscience 5: 659–668.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pool, T. K. & J. D. Olden, 2012. Taxonomic and functional homogenization of an endemic desert fish fauna. Diversity and Distributions 18: 366–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team. 2018. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. ISBN 3-900051-07-0. Retrieved from http://www.R-project.org.

  • Schmera, D., D. Árva, P. Boda, E. Bódis, Á. Bolgovics, G. Borics, A. Csercsa, C. Deák, E. Á. Krasznai, B. A. Lukács, P. Mauchart, A. Móra, A. Sály, A. Specziár, K. Süveges, I. Szivák, P. Takács, M. Tóth, G. Várbíró, A. E. Vojtkó & T. Erős, 2018. Does isolation influence the relative role of environmental and dispersal-related processes in stream networks? An empirical test of the network position hypothesis using multiple taxa. Freshwater Biology 63: 74–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, M. C. & G. S. Helfman, 2001. Native invasions, homogenization, and the mismeasure of integrity of fish assemblages. Fisheries 26: 6–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slawski, T. M., F. M. Veraldi, S. M. Pescitelli & M. J. Pauers, 2008. Effects of tributary spatial position, urbanization, and multiple low-head dams on warmwater fish community structure in a midwestern stream. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 28: 1020–1035.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Su, G., H. M. Logez, J. Xu, S. Tao, S. Villéger & S. Brosse, 2021. Human impacts on global freshwater fish biodiversity. Science 371: 835–838.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tan, K., C. Wang, Q. Li, D. Zhang, L. Chu & Y. Yan, 2021. Variation in processes structuring fish assemblages as inferred from metacommunity analyses: differences between headwater and adventitious streams within a river network. Freshwater Science 40: 615–625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turgeon, K., C. Turpin & I. Gregory-Eaves, 2019. Dams have varying impacts on fish communities across latitudes: a quantitative synthesis. Ecology Letters 22: 1501–1516.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Valéry, L., H. Fritz, J. Lefeuvre & D. Simbrloff, 2009. Invasive species can also be native. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 24: 585.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Looy, K., T. Tormos & Y. Souchon, 2014. Disentangling dam impacts in river networks. Ecological Indicators 37: 10–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Villéger, S., G. Grenouillet & S. Brosse, 2014. Functional homogenization exceeds taxonomic homogenization among European fish assemblages. Global Ecology and Biogeography 23: 1450–1460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitule, J. R. S., F. Skóra & V. Abilhoa, 2012. Homogenization of freshwater fish faunas after the elimination of a natural barrier by a dam in Neotropics. Diversity and Distributions 18: 111–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, L., D. Infante, J. Lyons, J. Stewart & A. Cooper, 2011. Effects of dams in river networks on fish assemblages in non-impoundment sections of rivers in Michigan and Wisconsin, USA. River Research and Applications 27: 473–487.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, J., C. Ding, J. Tao, X. Jiang, J. Heino, L. Ding, W. Su, M. Chen, K. Zhang & D. He, 2021. Damming affects riverrine macroinvertebrate metacommunity dynamics: Insights from taxonomic and functional beta diversity. Science of the Total Environment 763: 142945.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yan, Y. Z., H. Wang, R. Zhu, L. Chu & Y. F. Chen, 2013. Influences of low-head dams on the fish assemblages in the headwater streams of the Qingyi watershed, China. Environmental Biology of Fishes 96: 495–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, C., C. Ding, L. Ding, L. Chen, J. Hu, J. Tao & X. Jiang, 2019. Large-scale cascaded dam constructions drive taxonomic and phylogenetic differentiation of fish fauna in the Lancang River, China. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 29: 895–916.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers: 31872251, 31500452, and 31372227) and the Special Fund for Anhui Agriculture Research System [Anhui Agricultural Science Letter No. (2021) 711]. We appreciate the support of the Provincial Key Laboratory of Biotic Environment and Ecological Safety in Anhui. This study was conducted with permission from the Animal Ethics Committee of Anhui Normal University. We would like to express our gratitude to Andy Dzialowski, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments, which significantly improved the manuscript.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31372227, 31872251, 31500452), and Special Fund for Anhui Agriculture Research System, [Anhui Agricultural Science Letter No. (2021) 711.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Innovation Center of Recovery and Reconstruction of Degraded Ecosystem in Wanjiang Basin Co-Founded By Anhui Province and Ministry of Education, and School of Ecology and Environment, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, 241002, China

    Qiang Li, Yuhan Zhang, Ling Chu & Yunzhi Yan

  2. School of Ecology and Environment, Anhui Normal University, South Jiuhua Road 189, Wuhu, 241002, Anhui Province, China

    Yunzhi Yan

Authors
  1. Qiang Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yuhan Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ling Chu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yunzhi Yan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

YY and QL designed the study. QL, YZ, LC, and YY conducted the field and/or laboratory work. QL and YZ analyzed the data. LC and YZ contributed materials, reagents and/or analysis tools. QL drafted the manuscript, with assistance from YY.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yunzhi Yan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Handling editor: Andrew Dzialowski

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, Q., Zhang, Y., Chu, L. et al. Low-head dams facilitate the native invasion of downstream fishes to subtropical headwater streams, China. Hydrobiologia 850, 1897–1909 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05200-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-023-05200-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation