Long-term study of reservoir cascade in south-eastern Brazil reveals spatio-temporal gradient in fish assemblages

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Abstract

In reservoir cascades, effects on fish assemblages are expected to strengthen over time and transfer from one reservoir to an adjacent one. To test this, fish-assemblage data from 23 years of monitoring in the Araguari reservoir cascade system, upper Paraná River basin, were analysed. The results showed a clear reduction in richness of native and migratory fish species and an increase of non-native species, following reservoir formation. Migratory species richness was higher in reservoirs that presented habitats similar to lotic stretches or tributaries upstream of the impounded area. There was a clear tendency for native species to decline and non-native fish species to increase, in a downstream direction. Fish assemblages became increasingly dissimilar as reservoirs became more distant from each other (longitudinal gradient) and were dominated by small and medium-sized species. Alongside longitudinal position, reservoir area, age and the presence of herbivorous non-native fish were found to be important predictors of variation in fish-assemblage structure. Results from the present study help clarify the potential accumulated impacts of reservoir cascades on fish diversity, which must be carefully considered in river-basin inventories for hydropower plants, and reinforce the importance of long-term monitoring, considering longitudinal and lateral dimensions of the basin.

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Basic principles and ecological consequences of altered flow regimes for aquatic biodiversity.

STUART E. BUNN, ANGELA H. ARTHINGTON (2002)

The flow regime is regarded by many aquatic ecologists to be the key driver of river and floodplain wetland ecosystems. We have focused this literature review around four key principles to highlight the important mechanisms that link hydrology and aquatic biodiversity and to illustrate the consequent impacts of altered flow regimes: Firstly, flow is a major determinant of physical habitat in streams, which in turn is a major determinant of biotic composition; Secondly, aquatic species have evolved life history strategies primarily in direct response to the natural flow regimes; Thirdly, maintenance of natural patterns of longitudinal and lateral connectivity is essential to the viability of populations of many riverine species; Finally, the invasion and success of exotic and introduced species in rivers is facilitated by the alteration of flow regimes. The impacts of flow change are manifest across broad taxonomic groups including riverine plants, invertebrates, and fish. Despite growing recognition of these relationships, ecologists still struggle to predict and quantify biotic responses to altered flow regimes. One obvious difficulty is the ability to distinguish the direct effects of modified flow regimes from impacts associated with land-use change that often accompanies water resource development. Currently, evidence about how rivers function in relation to flow regime and the flows that aquatic organisms need exists largely as a series of untested hypotheses. To overcome these problems, aquatic science needs to move quickly into a manipulative or experimental phase, preferably with the aims of restoration and measuring ecosystem response.