Maria Latif, Sumaira Siddiqui, Imtiaz Begum Minhas and Samavia Latif
Keywords: Chenab, fish fauna, freshwater, diversity, abundance.
Abstract: Marala headwork situated on River Chenab in Punjab, Pakistan was surveyed to assess the diversity and abundance of the fish fauna during the period September 2015 to June 2016. A total of five sampling sites were studied on monthly basis by using different fishing nets for assessing fish diversity. Total 1391 fish specimens belonging to 38 species, 30 genus, 14 families and 6 orders were recorded in the present study. Family Cyprinidae was found dominant with 14 fish species followed by Channidae (4 species) and Bagridae (3 Species). Fish abundance and diversity was assessed by using different diversity indices. The Shannon-Wiener diversity, Pielou’s evenness and Margalef,s richness indices were 2.950, 0.81 and 11.8, respectively. Present findings showed that the population of Tor putitora and Nandus nandus has declined while exotic fish species, Cyprinus carpio, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Hypophthalmicthyus molitrix, Oreochromis niloticus and Oreochromis mossambicus has become established. The low evenness in the river was an indication of the effects of anthropogenic activities such as habitat degradation, aquatic pollution, overfishing, damming and introduction of alien fish species. Present findings highlight the importance of instant mitigation measures for conserving fish diversity in the river.
[View Complete Article]