Ichthyoplankton recruitment from mainstream of the Changjiang River into the Dongting Lake, the second largest freshwater lake in China

Abstract

Floodplains are important and distinctive ecosystems around the world, and the recruitment of ichthyoplankton from river to floodplain lakes is crucial to maintain this unique ecosystem. However, this process has not been well documented. In this study, ichthyoplankton were sampled to investigate the details of ichthyoplankton recruitment from the Changjiang (Yangtze) River to the Dongting Lake via a floodway channel, the Songzi River, from May to July in 2013 and 2014. During the study period, 41 species of eggs and larvae were sampled. Among the samples, 16 were river-lake migratory species (RL), representing 23.5% of the species in the Dongting Lake. In 2013, an estimated 130 million eggs and 3 180 million larvae drifted through the sampling section, and in 2014, an estimated 1 060 million eggs and 1 040 million larvae drifted through the sampling section. The amount of eggs and larvae of RL reached 3 210 million in 2013 and 1 850 million in 2014, respectively. These results demonstrated the importance of ichthyoplankton recruitment from the river to the lake, as species diversity will decrease sharply without this recruitment. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that water temperature and water flow are the two most important factors influencing the spawning activities of fish. To maintain the high fish diversity in the Changjiang floodplain, we suggest to irrigate the channel to increase water discharge and increase the transport of ichthyoplankton from the Changjiang mainstream into the Dongting Lake.