Effects of reservoir cascades on diversity, distribution, and abundance of fish assemblages in three Neotropical basins

Ganassin, Maria Julia Mileo; Muñoz‐Mas, Rafael; Oliveira, Fagner Junior M.; Muniz, Carolina Mendes; Santos, Natália Carneiro Lacerda dos; García‐Berthou, Emili; Gomes, Luiz Carlos

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146246

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Increasing riverbed steepness and water discharges and decreasing trophic status, conductivity, and temperature constitute natural barriers to dispersal for generalists and their proliferation in upstream lotic environments inhabited by potamodromous rheophilic species (Vannote et al, 1980;Johnson et al, 1995;Troia and Gido, 2014). These natural processes are seriously damaged by reservoir construction, and the impacts of reservoirs have been monitored with special attention paid to altered habitats below reservoir and newly established fish communities within reservoirs (Bain et al, 1988;Kubečka, 1993;Říha et al, 2009;Ganassin et al, 2021) and to river function alterations downstream and between reservoirs (Preece and Jones, 2002;Perkin et al, 2015;Bartoň et al, 2022). A significant scientific effort has been aimed to discover the effects of limited gene flow due to migration constraints between isolated sites and the way how construction of fish ladders could avert these effects (Roscoe and Hinch, 2010;Kemp, 2016;Tamario et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living on the edge: Reservoirs facilitate enhanced interactions among generalist and rheophilic fish species in tributaries

Šmejkal

Bartoň

Duras

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Most lotic ecosystems have been heavily modified in recent centuries to serve human needs, for example, by building dams to form reservoirs. However, reservoirs have major impacts on freshwater ecosystem functions and severely affect rheophilic fishes. The aim of this review is to gather evidence that aside from direct habitat size reductions due to reservoir construction, competition for food and space and predation from generalist fishes affect rheophilic community compositions in tributaries (river/stream not directly affected by water retention). River fragmentation by reservoirs enables the establishment of generalist species in altered river sections. The settlement of generalist species, which proliferate in reservoirs and replace most of the native fish species formerly present in pristine river, may cause further diversity loss in tributaries. Generalist migrations in tributaries, spanning from tens of metres to kilometres, affect fish communities that have not been directly impacted by reservoir construction. This causes “edge effects” where two distinct fish communities meet. Such interactions temporarily or permanently reduce the effective sizes of available habitats for many native specialized rheophilic fish species. We identified gaps that need to be considered to understand the mechanistic functioning of distinct fauna at habitat edges. We call for detailed temporal telemetry and trophic interaction studies to clarify the mechanisms that drive community changes upstream of reservoirs. Finally, we demonstrate how such knowledge may be used in conservation to protect the remnants of rheophilic fish populations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living on the edge: Reservoirs facilitate enhanced interactions among generalist and rheophilic fish species in tributaries

Šmejkal

Bartoň

Duras

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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“…The clearer water associated with upstream reservoirs encourages prey and predator interactions and promotes predator abundance in reservoirs (dos Santos et al, 2017; Gardner, 1981; Montaña et al, 2014; Pyron et al, 2019). Interestingly, the pattern was inverted in some Brazilian reservoir cascades where water clarity was reduced in downstream reservoirs by sediment and nutrient retention and by local environmental particularities (dos Santos et al, 2017; Ganassin et al, 2021). Moreover, fisheries management agencies often stock and introduce piscivorous game species, focusing on upstream reservoirs where stocking benefits fish assemblages with fewer traits the most, possibly influencing the reverse longitudinal gradient in predator traits observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These include limited information about species' traits, losing the interspecific variability often defined by more than just the observed traits, and associated reduced discriminatory power (Culp et al, 2011; Hoeinghaus et al, 2007; Lima et al, 2017; Verberk et al, 2013). Nevertheless, traits have been used successfully to study aspects such as effects of reservoir aging (dos Santos et al, 2017), oligotrophication (Ganassin et al, 2021), and responses of fish assemblages to impoundment (de Bem et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Connectivity through the river network is interrupted by each dam, by the vast reaches of lentic water impounded behind each dam, and by the changes in physicochemical qualities that occur above and below the dams (Bunn & Arthington, 2002; Poff & Zimmerman, 2010). Reductions in environmental and species diversity are commonly associated with the loss of connectivity and environmental homogenisation produced by expansive reaches of stored water (Dias et al, 2021; Ganassin et al, 2021; Yang et al, 2020). The transformations caused by reservoir cascades can be severe at the reach scale, but overarching basin‐scale effects are less clear.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fish functional gradients along a reservoir cascade

et al. 2023

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The transformations of fish assemblages caused by reservoir cascades can be severe at the reach scale, but basin‐scale effects are less clear. However, prevailing river concepts provide a framework for predicting basin‐scale effects. To determine if predictions made by the River Continuum Concept relative to the function of fish assemblages are sustained in a temperate river transformed into a reservoir cascade, we examined longitudinal trends in the distribution of fish functional traits over 23 reservoirs of the Tennessee River, U.S.A. In all, 115 species were recorded representing 62 traits, with trait richness increasing longitudinally in a downstream direction. Trophic, reproductive, and habitat traits showed various increasing and decreasing patterns up and down the reservoir cascade. The observed gradients in trait richness and trait distributions were generally consistent with those expected in unregulated rivers, with few unexpected results. The transformation of lotic systems into lentic ones has changed habitats and sources of food and encouraged the proliferation of certain feeding (e.g., detritivores, planktivores, invertivores, piscivores), reproduction (e.g., nest spawners polyphils, broadcast spawners phytolithophils), and habitat (slow current, lacustrine, large river) traits. In essence, reservoirs have expanded downstream habitats in an upstream direction, and thus allowed upstream expansion of species and traits that would have normally not been well represented in upper reaches of the Tennessee River basin. Nevertheless, the impounded Tennessee River has maintained much of its functional integrity, despite extensive alterations to the riverscape. We suggest that, while reservoirs have been shown to have major local‐scale effects on riverine fish assemblages, with access to riverine habitats, and with proactive conservation strategies, fish functional richness can remain remarkably high at the basin scale.

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“…This is a significant cause of the declining trend of populations of this species in the Morava basin, which was obtained as a result of this study. Numerous studies both worldwide and in Serbia have demonstrated the negative consequences of dams on rivers for fish biodiversity and river ecosystems in general (Radojković et al, 2019;Ganassin et al, 2021;Khatun and Pal, 2021;Sousa et al, 2021). During our research, the impact of hydroaccumulations (especially large ones) on the downstream parts of rivers is stated, which can be called the "habitat inversion effect".…”

Section: Impact Of Multiple Stressors On the Ecological Sustainabilit...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the ecological sustainability of river basins based on the modified the ESHIPPOfish model on the example of the Velika Morava basin (Serbia, Central Balkans)

Simić

Bănăduc

Curtean–Bănăduc

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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This study examines the ecological sustainability of the Velika Morava River Basin (Serbia, Central Balkans) under modern conditions of multiple freshwater stressors, including climate change. The impact of stressors on the ecological services of the river basin is considered, including: drinking water, irrigation, recreation, tourism, ecotourism, and fishing. In order to assess the ecological sustainability of the river basin, a modification of the ESHIPPO model was performed. The essence of the modification is a change to the ES component, which, in the basic model, assesses the degree of ecological specialization of a taxon; and in the modified assessment of the ecological stability of the ecosystem (ESE). The structure of ichthyocenosis is used as the basic biological indicator for the assessment of ESE. The assessment of river basin sustainability was obtained as the difference between ESE and the impact of multiple factors, including: habitat change, invasive species, pollution, human population growth (social factors), and the over-exploitation of resources (HIPPO). The statistical analysis (SOM—Self Organizing Map) highlights the most reliable indicators of both biotic (ichthyocenosis structure elements) and the indicators that best detect the influence of HIPPO factors. The structure of the model is based on general and easily measurable indicators, which enables its application in any river basin in the world. The results of the model indicate that 80% of the studied basin is ecologically unsustainable and that its potential environmental services are greatly reduced.

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Effects of reservoir cascades on diversity, distribution, and abundance of fish assemblages in three Neotropical basins

Cited by 23 publications

References 75 publications

Living on the edge: Reservoirs facilitate enhanced interactions among generalist and rheophilic fish species in tributaries

Living on the edge: Reservoirs facilitate enhanced interactions among generalist and rheophilic fish species in tributaries

Fish functional gradients along a reservoir cascade

Assessment of the ecological sustainability of river basins based on the modified the ESHIPPOfish model on the example of the Velika Morava basin (Serbia, Central Balkans)

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