The Pearl River Estuary is the largest estuary in South China and plays a considerable role in the local fisheries economy, yet little is known about the current state of fish assemblage in this ecosystem. To quantify spatial‐seasonal variations, environmental influences, and trends over the past three decades of the fish assemblage in the Pearl River Estuary, we sampled 11 sites seasonally from December 2013 to September 2016. Throughout the study, 285 species from 88 families and 195 genera were collected. There were obvious spatial and seasonal variations of the fish assemblage in terms of the dominant species, species richness, and composition of ecological types. Mouth distance, NH4+ N, chlorophyll‐a, flow, DO, salinity and water transparency were the main variables influencing the spatial‐temporal dynamic of fishes within the estuarine systems. Compared with the record of 330 species in the 1980s, the number of fish species in the Pearl River Estuary has declined by 45 fish species. The Jaccard's similarity of fish composition between the historical investigation (the 1980's) and the present investigation (2013–2016) was 0.62, with 95 species undiscovered and 50 species increased in the present study compared to the 1980s, indicating the assemblage structure has obviously changed. However, in term of ecological guilds, there was no significant difference in the composition of all the selected ecological traits between these two periods. Anthropogenic activities including overfishing, introducing alien fish, dam construction and pollution were considered the main disturbance on fish composition over the past three decades. We conclude that there existed pronounced spatiotemporal changes of fish assemblages, which arises from the compounding effects of environmental factors and anthropogenic activities. These findings are beneficial to understanding and developing suitable conservation strategies for the management and protection of fish resources in the Pearl River Estuary.

In this study, we aimed to characterize the fish community structure and identify the drivers contributing to homogenization/differentiation processes in four tributaries to the Pearl River, Guangxi Province, China, over the past few decades. We sampled 22 sites seasonally from 2013 through 2015, and these sites were selected based on archived records of previous sampling conducted in the 1980s. Jaccard's faunal similarity index, cluster analysis, and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were applied to describe the homogenization/differentiation of fish community and illustrate the potential effectors. The number of fish species present in three of the four sampled tributaries declined dramatically over the past 30 years, leading toward a trend of increased fish community homogeneity throughout the watershed. Results from multidimensional scaling and cluster analyses allowed us to divide the study area into two distinct ecoregions. Four species (yellow catfish Pelteobagrus fulvidraco, pond loach Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus, and sharpbelly Hemiculter leucisculus) were considered to be indicative fish species contributing more than 5% of the dissimilarity between the two eco‐regions according to the results of similarity percentage procedure. Results from CCA revealed that pH and latitude corresponded with the dominant fish species of each respective tributary. More specifically, CCA results allowed us to classify dominant fish species into three distinct groups. The first group was mainly located in Guijiang characterized by higher latitudes and lower pH values, the second group was widespread in the four tributaries, and the last group was primarily distributed in Yujiang, Youjiang, and Zuojiang characterized by lower latitudes and higher pH values. Spatial differentiation of fish community structure and temporal homogeneity of species composition were attributed to the joint actions of human interventions including construction of dams and introductions of exotic fish species that led to habitat degeneration and fragmentation, and unequal interspecies competitions.

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To address the fish use patterns of artificial structures mimicking floating macrophytes deployed in a impounded tributary of the Pearl River, China, field experiments were performed from December 2014 to June 2016 using multi-mesh gillnet. The fish assemblages using artificial structures differ in terms of species richness, abundance, body size, diversity indices, and ecological traits from fish assemblages on natural barren habitats of this river. Overall, fish abundance, species richness, Shannon diversity index, and functional richness were higher at the artificial structures than at the control sites, while fish length and functional evenness was greater at the control sites in comparison to artificial structures. The introduction of artificial structures did not result in statistically significant effects on fish biomass as artificial structures attracted more individuals with smaller size. Seasonal changes of chlorophyll-a and transparency may affect the efficiency of artificial structure in harboring fishes. This study revealed that artificial structures, as synthesized habitats, are effective in acting as a “fish attractor” and an alternative tool to provide new habitats for smaller individuals in a dammed river like the Youjiang River which is a structure-less ecosystem.