A ‘Before and After’ Study of the Effects of Land Drainage Works on Fish Stocks in the Upper Reaches of a Lowland River

Swales, Stephen

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2109.1982.tb00038.x

Cited by 15 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Such shallow, lentic habitats are crucial to the recruitment of riverine fishes (Mann, 1996), and their re-creation in regulated, channelised rivers should be an integral component of any river rehabilitation or enhancement work intending to mitigate the adverse river engineering impacts on riverine fish recruitment (e.g. Swales, 1982).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size-structured diel use of river banks by fish

Copp

Jurajda

1999

Aquat. Sci.

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We examined the role of body size in the diel use of river banks by fish and the abundance of piscivorous fishes to determine if predation pressure influences diel habitat use. We hypothesised that the mean standard length (SL) of non-piscivorous fish would decrease at night. Fish were sampled via point sampling by electrofishing every 3-4 h over three 24-h periods (late August 1992, early September 1993, late May 1994) along two adjacent stretches of bank (shallow sand, steep boulder) of the River Morava, Czech Republic. Gill netting in mid-channel adjacent to the sand bank was also used in 1993 to determine predator abundance. Analysis of variance and sizeclass ordination revealed higher numbers of smaller fish were captured at night along the banks than during the day, being in most cases significant. In almost all cases (all years and along all bank types), the standard length (SL) of non-piscivorous fishes was significantly lower during hours of darkness, in particular near midnight. Conversely, the SL of the non-piscivorous fishes in August 1993 was significantly higher in the gill nets during hours of darkness. Size class ordination and electivity indices revealed that bitterling Rhodeus sericeus in August 1992 were distributed according to size along the sand bank (smaller size classes) and the boulder bank (larger size classes); also, equivalent or adjacent size classes of Rutilus rutilus (41 -50, 51 -60, 61 -70, 71 -80, 81 -105 mm SL), a large bodied species, and Gobio albipinnatus (26 -50, 51 -60, 61 -70, 71 -80, 81 -90 mm SL), a small-bodied species, co-exploited both types of river bank, moving to the sand bank at night, a possible example of recruitment bottleneck. In May 1994, smaller size classes of Leuciscus leuciscus (78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86)(87)(88)(89)(90)(90)(91)(92)(93)(94)(95)(96)(97)(98)(99)(100)(101)(102)(103)(104)(105)(106)(107)(108) ≥ 150 mm SL) preferred the sand and boulder banks, respectively, with the largest sizes of the two species occurring together more often than expected along both banks. The results generally support our hypothesis, suggesting that shallow river shorelines represent important night-time refuges from predation for the smaller size classes of fish, thus constituting crucial life-history habitat important for the recruitment of many riverine fishes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size-structured diel use of river banks by fish

Copp

Jurajda

1999

Aquat. Sci.

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“…The Great Ouse also differs from smaller lowland rivers in England (i.e. Swales, 1982Swales, , 1988Hickley and Bailey, 1982) and Poland (Penczak, 1981), which possess few if any transversal annexes and correspondingly few limnophilic fishes. In the Great Ouse system, backwaters, marinas and drainage canals represent the principal forms of transversal biotope still extant; these annexes are found only occasionally along the entire course of the river, and the reproduction of limnophilic fishes (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The influence of these processes on fish assemblage structure in floodplain ecosystems is also clearly evident in the spatial and temporal dynamics of fish reproduction (Copp, 1989a). Lowland rivers, unlike many other fluvial systems, generally present little natural longitudinal zonation of fish reproduction (Swales, 1982) but possess a marked transversal zonation (Witkowski, 1984), with floodplain ecosystems of similar and different successional state presenting a transversal mosiac of spawning habitat and thus fish assemblages. Because channelization, impoundment and embankment construction have such a profound effect on the natural geomorphological and hydrological processes (Keller, 1976), which determine river ecosystem function and succession, these anthropic activities exert direct influences on community structure (Amoros e t al., 1987) and fish assemblage structure in particular (Gunderson, 1968;Swales, 1988;Portt et al, 1986;Copp, 1989a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a consequence, populations of many sport fishes in these rivers have been reduced (Swales, 1982(Swales, , 1988, particularly within navigable stretches (Linfield, 1985), with a number of species becoming locally extinct or drastically reduced in range and abundance. Clearly, to evaluate the influence of regulation on the fish reproductive potential of the fluvial system, the river and its aquatic annexes should be studied as an entity; however, few published studies of British lowland rivers have addressed fish assemblage structure at the river system or drainage basin level (Swales, 1982). The purpose of this present investigation was thus to undertake the comprehensive study of fish recruitment at various sites (main river, side-channels, backwaters, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of regulation on 0+ fish recruitment in the great ouse, a lowland river

Copp

1990

Regul. Rivers: Res. Mgmt.

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The recruitment of 0 + fishes in the River Great Ouse, East Anglia (U.K.), was investigated using electrofishing by Point Abundance Sampling, in order to compare the distribution and extent of fish reproduction in the river and its annexes (side channels, backwaters, etc.) with similar but unregulated lowland rivers of Europe. 1-n all, 44 sites were sampled during three weeks in August 1989. Correspondence Analysis of the Sites-by-Species matrix (44 x 17) in density (fishes per mZ) revealed a slight but notable longitudinal zonation of fish reproduction, unusual for lowland rivers, with the Iimnophils Blicca bjoerkna (L.), Scardinus erythrophthalmus (L.) and Abramis brama (L.) limited to lentic downstream sites and the rheophil Barbus barbus (L.) restricted to a few upstream sites. Thus, compared with unregulated rivers of Europe, the River Great Ouse differs by: (1) the absence of pelagic spawners, e.g. Lota Iota (L.), which were historically reported as abundant; (2) the reduced range and abundance of both rheophilic and limnophilic cyprinids, e.g. B. barbus (L.), Alburnus alburnus (L.) and Blicca bjoerkna (L.), Scardinus erythrophthalmus (L.), Abramis brama (L.), Tinca tinca (L.); and (3) the predominance of generalists throughout the system, Rutilus rutilus (L.) downstream and Phoxinus phoxinus (L.) with Gasterosteus aculeatus (L.) upstream, probably to the additional detriment of the localized specialists, both limnophilic and rheophilic. KEY WORDS

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“…The often negative effects on the freshwater fish fauna of river modification, channelisation, flow regulation and barriers to passage are well documented (Swales 1982;Ward and Stanford 1989; Harris and Mallen-Cooper 1994; Jurajda 1995; Gehrke et al 1995; Marsden and Gehrke 1996;Pethebridge et al 1998). The impacts of reduced freshwater flow due to such river regulation and diversion on estuarine and marine fish and invertebrates have been reviewed by Drinkwater and Frank (1994).…”

Section: Estuarine Fish and Tidal Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish in urban environments

Gibbs¹

2004

Urban Wildlife

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In the urban environment the impact of human activity often results in the construction of tidal barriers to estuarine fish passage and/or highly modified fish habitats. The modified, shallow estuarine habitat of the urban Rockdale wetland corridor, Botany Bay, is used by estuarine fish and its functional equivalency compared with similar non urban habitats is demonstrated. The argument is presented that estuarine fish are part of the urban wildlife fauna and they should be included in education and advisory programs developed and coordinated by various groups to protect, enhance and maintain wildlife populations in the urban environment. 83Urban wildlife: more than meets the eye Estuarine fishThere are many studies related to fish in NSW estuaries and the importance of shallow water habitats and wetlands (SPCC 1981 a,b,c; Burchmore et al. 1985;Middleton et al. 1984; Bell and Pollard 1989; Ferrell and Bell 1991;McNeill et al. 1992;Worthington et al. 1992; Ferrell et al. 1993;Pollard 1984Pollard , 1994 Gray et al. 1996;West and King 1996; Hannan and Williams 1998;Pease 1999; Gray et al. 2000;West and Jones 2001). The focus of these studies is normally the recreationally or commercially important harvested species and/or the recruitment of juveniles.The above studies demonstrate the density of fish in estuaries is greater in the seagrass habitats than bare sand or mud habitats. Fish community structure within and between estuaries is similar with differences observed related to estuary morphology rather than latitudinal differences. This latter finding is however, partially confounded due to differences associated with water quality and habitat quality. One of the prime drivers of juvenile fish distribution is the availability of shelter, calm water, food, and also predator interactions. Most of the studies show that the fish fauna is diverse within both the urbanised and non-urbanised estuaries. There are large commercial and recreational catches of fish in both groups of estuaries.There is considerable movement of fish between habitats in estuarine systems. This occurs at different life stages or on a seasonal basis. For example the general life cycle pattern for sea mullet Mugil cephalus, a common species in NSW estuaries, is for the adults to spawn in the open ocean, during autumn to early winter. The planktonic larvae then recruit to shallow mangrove/seagrass areas when they are about 30 millimetres long in late autumn and winter. The fish then move as subadults to river channel, mud and sand flat areas in late spring, and by that stage, they are about 125 millimetres long.In comparison yellowfin bream Acanthopagrus australis adults spawn in the surf zones near the entrances to estuaries in winter, and the larvae recruit at about 15-20 millimetres in spring/summer to the seagrass meadows. This is when the mullet are leaving the shallow seagrass habitats. Then the juvenile bream move to deeper waters at about 120 millimetres long, this occurs in autumn/ winter, which is when the mullet are recruiting.There ...

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A ‘Before and After’ Study of the Effects of Land Drainage Works on Fish Stocks in the Upper Reaches of a Lowland River

Cited by 15 publications

References 16 publications

Size-structured diel use of river banks by fish

Size-structured diel use of river banks by fish

Effect of regulation on 0+ fish recruitment in the great ouse, a lowland river

Fish in urban environments

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