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Human disturbance and long-term changes in fish taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity in the Yellow River, China

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Abstract

Dramatic environmental changes and species invasions are increasingly threatening the diverse fish fauna of the Yellow River, China. This study examines temporal changes in the alpha and beta components of fish taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity in relation to anthropogenic environmental changes over the past 50 years. We hypothesized that temporal trends in multifaceted components of diversity would be highly congruent, but that the relative importance of anthropogenic disturbances would differ in shaping spatial patterns of fish diversity. We found that all three components of alpha diversity increased over time but at different rates (19.1%, 21.3% and 15.3% for taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity, respectively). Fish faunas of the Yellow River have also become homogenized over time, but this was much greater for functional and phylogenetic components of beta diversity than for taxonomic diversity (change in beta diversity = − 0.11, − 0.24 and − 0.02, respectively). Temporal changes in alpha and beta diversity were strongly related to invasion of non-native fish species and changes in temperature, sediment load, reservoir capacity and aquaculture area. Our results underscore the ongoing need for threat mitigation (particularly relating to dams and aquaculture) to conserve the unique biodiversity of one of the world’s largest rivers.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research program (STEP) (Grant No. 2019QZKK0304; 2019QZKK0501) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31372189); Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (Grant No. 2017ZX07302-002); Key Laboratory of Plateau Aquatic Organism and Environment of Qinghai Province (Grant No. KLPA2013-01; KLPA2016-01; KLPA2017-01). We wish to thank Mr. Ren Zhu, Chaojun Wei and Yaopeng Li for their help in field work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Yintao Jia, Yuhan Liu, Xiaoyun Sui & Yifeng Chen

  2. Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Mark J. Kennard

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

    Yuhan Liu

  4. Qinghai Provincial Fishery Environmental Monitoring Center, Xining, China

    Kemao Li & Guojie Wang

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  1. Yintao Jia
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Jia, Y., Kennard, M.J., Liu, Y. et al. Human disturbance and long-term changes in fish taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity in the Yellow River, China. Hydrobiologia 847, 3711–3725 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-020-04244-8

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