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Status and historical changes in the fish community in Erhai Lake

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Abstract

Erhai Lake is the second largest freshwater lake on the Yunnan Plateau, Southwest China. In recent decades, a number of exotic fish species have been introduced into the lake and the fish community has changed considerably. We evaluated the status of the fish community based on surveys with multimesh gillnet, trap net, and benthic fyke-net between May 2009 and April 2012. In addition, we evaluated the change in the community using historical data (1952–2010) describing the fish community and fishery harvest. The current fish community is dominated by small-sized fishes, including Pseudorasbora parva, Rhinogobius giurinus, Micropercops swinhonis, Hemiculter leucisculus, and Rhinogobius cliffordpopei. These accounted for 87.7% of the 22 546 total specimens collected. Omnivorous and carnivorous species dominated the community. A canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) plot revealed that the distribution of fishes in the lake is influenced by aquatic plants, water temperature, pH, and season. The abundance of indigenous species has declined sharply, and a majority of endemic species have been extirpated from the lake (a decrease from seven to two species). In contrast, the number of exotic species has increased since the 1960s to a total of 22 at present. The fishery harvest decreased initially following the 1960s, but has since increased due to the introduction of non-native fish and stocking of native fish. The fishery harvest was significantly correlated with total nitrogen, not total phosphorus, during the past 20 years. Based on our results, we discuss recommendations for the restoration and conservation of the fish resources in Erhai Lake.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Jianfeng Tang  (唐剑锋), Shaowen Ye  (叶少文), Wei Li  (李为), Jiashou Liu  (刘家寿), Tanglin Zhang  (张堂林), Zhiqiang Guo  (郭志强), Fengyue Zhu  (朱峰跃) & Zhongjie Li  (李钟杰)

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Jianfeng Tang  (唐剑锋), Zhiqiang Guo  (郭志强) & Fengyue Zhu  (朱峰跃)

  3. UPS, UMR5174 EDB, Université de Toulouse, F-31062, Toulouse, France

    Zhiqiang Guo  (郭志强)

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  1. Jianfeng Tang  (唐剑锋)
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  2. Shaowen Ye  (叶少文)
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  3. Wei Li  (李为)
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  6. Zhiqiang Guo  (郭志强)
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  7. Fengyue Zhu  (朱峰跃)
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  8. Zhongjie Li  (李钟杰)
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Correspondence to Zhongjie Li  (李钟杰).

Additional information

Supported by the National Special Research Fund for Non-Profit Sector (Agriculture) (No. 200903048-04), the Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment of China (No. 2012ZX07105-004), and the State Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30830025)

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Tang, J., Ye, S., Li, W. et al. Status and historical changes in the fish community in Erhai Lake. Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 31, 712–723 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-013-2324-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-013-2324-7

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