Biodiversity and Conservation of Freshwater Fishes in the Yujiang River, China
Biodiversity and Conservation of Freshwater Fishes in the Yujiang River, China
Wen Xiong1, Zhimin Jin1, Zinuo Yuan1, Qin Liu2* and Peter A. Bowler3
ABSTRACT
The Yujiang River lies within the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, a large conservation international-designated biodiversity hotspot in tropical Asia that supports some of the most diverse and unique ecosystems on the planet. Despite the extraordinary endemism in its 33 terrestrial ecoregions, there is little information about its freshwater fish biodiversity. Based on our field investigations and an extensive review of the literatures, we identified 137 fish species (including two non-native species), representing 9 orders, 26 families and 88 genera, that are distributed in the Yujiang River and its drainage basin. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria, six of these species (Anguilla japonica, Cyprinus carpio, Luciocyprinus langsoni, Pseudohemiculter dispar, Ptychidio jordani, and Cranoglanis bouderius), qualify for recognition as Threatened Species. Overfishing, water flow diversions and modifications, and the impacts of non-native species are the greatest threats to freshwater fish biodiversity in the Yujiang River. We recommend the adoption and enforcement of additional protected areas, improvement in approaches to sustainable fishery management, much better control of non-native species, and an improvement in and the expansion of fish life-history research. Our study contributes recommendations for the better protection of freshwater fish biodiversity and the development of sustainable fisheries in the Yujiang River.
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