[Relationships between spatial distribution of two dominant small-sized fishes and submerged macrophyte cover in Niushan Lake of China].

By using a set of pelagic gillnets with eight mesh sizes, an investigation was made on the spatial distribution of small fishes in submerged macrophyte habitats in a shallow macrophytic lake (Niushan Lake) in the middle reach of Yangtze River in summer, 2005. The fish composition, abundance, and size structure were examined along a biomass gradient of the most dominant submerged macrophyte Potamogeton maackianus. A total of 1124 individuals from 13 fish species were caught during the study period. According to the abundance and occurrence, sharpbelly Hemiculter leucisculus and redfin culter Cultrichthys erythropterus were identified as the two dominant small pelagic fishes in the lake. There existed dome-like relationships between the fish species richness and Shannon diversity index and the submerged macrophyte biomass within its observed range. For the two dominant small fishes, their abundance was significantly positively correlated with macrophyte biomass, and the average sizes of the individuals of H. leucisculus and C. erythropterus were larger in un-vegetated habitat but smaller in heavily vegetated habitats, indicating that the young individuals tended to live in dense submerged macrophyte covers. Other two habitat factors, i. e., water depth and distance to shore, had little effects on the spatial distribution of the two fish species. It was inferred that P. maackianus cover should be the important refuge habitat for the two dominant small-sized fishes in Niushan Lake, and it would be necessary to protect or restore the submerged macrophyte covers including P. maackianus.

[Species composition, diversity and density of small fishes in two different habitats in Niushan Lake].

This paper studied the spatial distribution of small fishes in a shallow macrophytic lake, Niushan Lake in spring 2003, and its relations with habitat heterogeneity. Based on the macrophyte cover condition, distance from lake shore and water depth, two representative habitat types in the lake were selected. Habitat A was near the shore with dense submersed macrophyte, while habitat B was far from the shore with sparse submersed macrophyte. Small fishes were sampled quantitatively by block net (180 m2), and their densities within the net area were estimated by multiple mark-recapture or Zippin's removal method. The results showed that there were some differences in species composition, biodiversity measurement, and estimated density of small fishes between the two habitats: 1) the catches in habitat A consisted of 14 small fish species from 5 families, among which, benthopelagic species Rhodeus ocellatus, Paracheilognathus imberbis and Pseudorasbora parva were considered as dominant species, while those in habitat B consisted of 9 small fish species from 3 families, among which, bottom species Rhinogobius giurinus and Micropercops swinhonis were dominant; 2) the Bray-Curtis index between the two small fish communities was 0.222, reflecting their low structure similarity, and no significant difference was observed between their rank/ abundance distributions, both of which belonged to log series distribution; 3) the total density of 9 major species in habitat A was 8.71 ind x m(-2), while that of 5 major species in habitat B was only 3.54 ind x m(-2). The fact that the spatial distribution of the small fishes differed with habitats might be related to their habitat need for escaping predators, feeding, and breeding, and thus, aquatic macrophyte habitat should be of significance in the rational exploitation of small fish resources as well as the conservation of fish resource diversity.