Effects of within-patch habitat structure and variation on fish assemblage characteristics in the Bernecei stream, Hungary

Abstract –  Over a 3-year period we examined variability in physical habitat structure and species richness, abundance and assemblage composition of fishes in 13 habitat patches in the Bernecei stream, Hungary. Principal component analysis of habitat structure data from patches elucidated a riffle-run-pool habitat gradient across patches. Temporal habitat variability increased significantly from riffle to pool patches. Fish assemblage characteristics displayed relatively continuous change over the habitat gradient and were relatively stable within patches. Assemblage structure properties (e.g., species richness) displayed different responses to the habitat gradient and to within-patch habitat variability. In general, pool patches had more diverse assemblages and greater within-patch assemblage variability than riffle patches. However, within-patch dynamics were largely determined by the population dynamics of a habitat generalist (i.e., minnow). Broad scale environmental variability (i.e., a catastrophic 100-year flood) also appeared to affect within-patch fish assemblage characteristics. Our results demonstrate that fish assemblage structure is influenced by physical variability (i.e., both floods and spatio-temporal habitat variability) within the Bernecei stream.     

Long-term variability in the fish assemblage around Japan over the last century and early warning signals of regime shifts

The marine ecosystems around Japan are very productive and have typical wasp-waist structure dominated by small pelagic fishes such as sardine, exhibiting large low-frequency fluctuations in biomass. Whereas studies on the variability in abundance of individual species such as sardine and anchovy are popular, only a few studies focused on the long-term variability of fish assemblage around Japan. In this study, 13 species/taxa ranging from small forage to large predatory species and from warm- to cold-water species were selected to indicate essential characteristics of the fish assemblage and their drivers were analysed based on fishery, oceanographic and climatic data sets from 1901 to 2018. Results show that two outstanding peaks during the 1930s and 1980s were characterized by abundant sardine. Additionally, species composition showed high similarities during similar temperature regimes while exhibiting contrasts during different temperature regimes. Variations and regime shifts in dominant patterns and fish community indices coincided well with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and regional sea surface temperature (SST). Furthermore, gradient forest analysis identified AMO and regional SSTs as most important predictors of dominant patterns and fish community indices, suggesting that the decadal and multidecadal variability in the fish assemblage around Japan was forced by basin-scale climate variability as inherent in the AMO through its connections with regional SSTs. Autocorrelation coefficient demonstrated that the ecological indicators have the potential to be early warning signals of regime shifts, which suggests the possibility of coming cold regime since around 2015 and has important implications for fisheries management.     

The relative influence of spatial context and catchment‐ and site‐scale environmental factors on stream fish assemblages in a human‐modified landscape

Abstract – Environmental factors act in a hierarchical manner at multiple spatial scales to influence the organisation of ecological assemblages; however, the relative influence of the different scale‐related factor groups is poorly known. We evaluated the importance of catchment‐scale and site‐scale environmental variables, as well as the spatial context of the sampling sites, in shaping stream fish assemblages in an agriculture‐dominated landscape in Hungary. Beside the variables describing spatial context (principal coordinates of a truncated distance matrix among sites), altogether 60 environmental variables were used to predict variability using a variance‐partitioning procedure in redundancy analysis. Presence–absence‐ and relative abundance‐based data were examined at two assemblage levels (entire assemblage and native assemblage) at 54 stream sites. Incorporation of spatial variables increased largely the total explained variability in case of relative abundance, but not for presence–absence data. Of the environmentally explained variance, catchment‐scale variables (e.g., land cover types, patch density) were relatively more influential for the native assemblage‐level analyses, than for analyses at the entire assemblage level, where site‐scale variables (e.g., altitude, depth) proved to be more influential. In addition, pure catchment‐ and pure site‐scale variables have the primary role in determining fish assemblage patterns, whereas the influence of shared variance and that of site‐scale riparian variables proved to be less important. Our findings demonstrate the importance of incorporating the spatial context of the sampling sites in predicting fish assemblage patterns and the effects of channelisation (dikes) in shaping assemblage–environment relationships in this human‐influenced landscape.     

Temporal dynamics of freshwater fish assemblages,their background and methods of quantifications—A synthesis

The temporal dynamics of biotic communities have been widely examined by ecologists. However, systematic reviews on how habitat features, sampling and data evaluation influence temporal patterns are rather sporadic. Here, we reviewed 307 peer-reviewed scientific articles to characterize the methods and the approaches, as well as to identify the knowledge gaps in the assessment of the temporal dynamics of freshwater fish assemblages with special regard to their stability patterns. The number of publications increased exponentially over decades. We revealed a highly uneven distribution of the studies among continents and ecosystems with a dominant number of papers derived from North America and Europe, and from lotic systems, especially. We also found large variability among studies even within similar habitat types in the examined spatial and temporal scales, sampling methods used, examined assemblage attributes, potential stressors and data analyses. Several knowledge gaps, such as the limited number of large-scale studies, the insufficient knowledge on the long-term dynamics of early life history stages and on trait-based assemblage organization, were highlighted. For enabling meaningful comparisons of fish assemblage dynamics in space and time, further developments in standardization procedures are needed across sampling and data evaluation possibilities. Publicly accessible long-term data sets with more details on sampling and environmental parameters would also be critically important to determine the effect of a variety of factors on the stability vs. variability of fish assemblages.     

Fish assemblages in Atlantic Forest streams: the relative influence of local and catchment environments on taxonomic and functional species

Streams are under environmental pressures acting at different scales that influence the ecological organisation of their fish assemblages. However, the relative influence of the different scale‐related variables on assemblage composition and function is poorly understood. We evaluated the importance of local‐ and catchment‐scale environmental variables, as well as the spatial structure of the sampling sites, in shaping fish assemblages in Atlantic Forest streams. Local‐scale variables were those measured at the sampling sites, describing the local habitat conditions (e.g. depth, substrate type, altitude). Catchment‐scale variables were those integrating the upstream landscape of the sampling sites (e.g. catchment land use). Spatial distances were calculated from watercourse distance using principal coordinates of neighbour matrices. Altogether, 28 local and seven catchment variables were initially subjected to two processes of eliminating co‐linearity. Redundancy analysis was applied to the three matrices (spatial, local and catchment) to quantify the variance in the structure of the fish assemblages explained by each matrix. Local variables explained more variability in both taxonomic and functional assemblage structure, than catchment and spatial variables. Local variables also changed along the longitudinal gradient, which consequently influenced fish assemblage structure. This pattern was also influenced by anthropogenic alteration and non‐native species, which were more abundant in downstream sites. These results highlight the need to assess Atlantic Forest streams under different environmental scales, especially through the use of quantitative local‐scale metrics, and to consider the effects of longitudinal patterns in structuring fish assemblages when developing and implementing monitoring programmes, impact studies and conservation plans.     

Fish assemblages as influenced by environmental factors in streams in protected areas of the Czech Republic

Abstract –  Three streams of comparable size located in different landscape-protected areas were selected for studying the effect of environmental factors on fish assemblages using indirect (detrended correspondence analysis, DCA) and direct (canonical correspondence analysis, CCA) gradient analysis. DCA of species showed well a gradient of assemblage changes in the longitudinal profile. DCA of sites stressed the variability between the fish assemblages of the three streams. This pattern was then confirmed by the highly significant between-stream CCA. In the within-site CCA, environmental factors explained 50.7% variability for presence–absence data and 58.3% for the relative abundance data. The analysis revealed that number of ponds and land use are the most influential factors of the strongest environmental gradient. However, in the partial CCAs, factor substratum type explained the largest proportion of the variability affecting fish in their habitat choice. Generally, presence–absence and relative abundance data of fish gave similar results in both DCA and CCA analyses; the same environmental factors proved to be important in both data type analyses. The environmental factors explain more variability than the regional (between-stream) one. The total proportion of variability explained by the presence–absence data analysis was 71.9% and in the relative abundance analysis even 80.8%. The environmental factors measured during the field survey explain 2.1- and 3.4-times more assemblages' variability than factors measured from a hydrological map.     

Biodiversity and rarity distributions of native freshwater fish in an agricultural landscape: the importance of β diversity between and within water‐body types

1. Farmland expansion is a growing threat to aquatic biodiversity. Identifying conservation priority areas in agricultural landscapes is a key issue in freshwater ecology and information on the spatial variability of aquatic biodiversity is vital for prioritization. This study examined patterns of farmland fish assemblages across various water‐body types in northern Japan to develop an effective management plan for freshwater fishes.
2. Water bodies were classified into five types: small lowland streams, small upland streams, large rivers, man‐made ditches, and wetland ponds, and native fishes were collected from each type. The contribution of fish diversity between water‐body types (β2) to the regional fish diversity (γ) was investigated through additive diversity partitioning. Within each water‐body type, the contributions of between‐site diversity (β1) and within‐site diversity (α1) were also examined. The assemblage composition, species richness, and rarity were compared among the water‐body types.
3. The assemblage composition differed significantly among most of the water‐body types, which indicated that the landscape classification was appropriate for representing spatial variations in fish diversity. Additive diversity partitioning revealed that the contributions of β1 and β2 to γ fish diversity were relatively high at 38.2% and 37.3%, respectively, followed by a 24.5% contribution of α1 diversity. This finding demonstrates that the best strategy for conserving regional farmland fish diversity is to preferentially select areas containing various water‐body types as a conservation unit.
4. Among the water‐body types, ditches and streams exhibited the higher contribution ratio for β1 diversity, whereas the contribution of β1 diversity was lower in wetland ponds. The differences in the contribution of β1 diversity might be attributed to human‐induced factors, such as habitat fragmentation or shrinking. These results emphasize that further studies are needed to clarify the factors influencing the β1 diversity of farmland fish to develop better management strategies for each water‐body type.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of an extreme flash flood on the native fish assemblages across a Mediterranean catchment

Abstract  The effects of an extreme flash flood on the native fish assemblages across a Mediterranean catchment in Southwest Portugal were investigated. The fish community structure and habitat were surveyed at 10 sites pre- and post-flood. Overall species richness and rank abundances changed little after the flood, despite there being a consistent decline in the abundance of small cyprinids. Pre- and post-flood habitat correlates of abundance changed for at least some species, and variability in assemblage structure was associated with flood, depth and pH. These results indicate that extreme floods occurring early in the wet season may have little disruptive effects on the overall structure of native fish assemblages in Mediterranean streams, although may at least partially influence population dynamics for some species. Habitat quality and complexity are likely to play a role in mediating species responses to flooding.     

渤海莱州湾硬骨鱼类早期资源群落结构及演变

莱州湾作为黄渤海众多渔业生物关键栖息地,其鱼类早期发生量和补充量直接影响渤海乃至黄海渔业资源动态及其可持续性。实验基于历史调查资料并结合补充调查,构建莱州湾鱼卵、仔鱼调查数据集,通过数理统计和时间序列分析阐述近40年来莱州湾鱼类早期资源(浮性鱼卵、仔稚鱼)群聚特性和演替过程。结果显示,莱州湾鱼类早期资源结构处在持续更替过程中,不同时期早期资源的种类组成、资源丰度、优势种类和物种多样性水平等呈明显季节更替。鱼卵和仔稚鱼种类数和资源丰度均在2010s (2010—2019,以下同此表示)初期跌至历史低值,近年来均又呈现一定程度回升。鱼卵和仔稚鱼种类数由1980s的44种,1990s前期的34种、后期的40种,2000s的35种,逐次下降至2010s前期的24种,2010s中后期开始逐步回升至38种。当前鱼卵种数仅为1980s的60%左右,资源丰度不足彼时三分之一;仔稚鱼种数为1980s的四分之三左右,资源丰度约为彼时的90%。生命周期短、性成熟早、处于食物链低端的中上层和底层小型鱼类为莱州湾鱼类早期资源的主体成分。长期变化,相同季节优势种种类更替现象明显,且近年来呈明显加快趋势;鱼卵仔稚鱼...