Spatiotemporal variations of fish feeding guilds in Yellow River basin

Abstract

Conservation of fish resources is the key to ecological protection and high-quality development of Yellow River basin. From 1960 to 2019, Yellow River basin distributed 201 fish species, belonging to 16 orders, 35 families. The species number of Cypriniformes was the largest (accounting for 60.7%), followed by Perciformes (accounting for 10.0%). From 1960 to 1980, there were 182 fish species belonging to 15 orders, 28 families. During 1980-2019, there were 112 species, belonging to 10 orders, 23 families. The total number of fish species in source area, midstream and downstream decreased significantly, while that in the upper reaches increased slightly. Jaccard's similarity index of source area, upstream, midstream and downstream between two periods were 34.2%, 46.0%, 42.4% and 35.7%, respectively. Based on feeding preference characteristic, fish species could be divided into eight feeding guilds: phytobenthivores, herbivores, phytoplanktivores, zooplanktivores, omnivorous, insectivores, zoobenthivores, and piscivores. Compared with the period from 1960 to 1980, the proportion of insectivores decreased significantly in the Yellow River basin during 1980-2019, while that of phytobenthivores, herbivores, phytoplanktivores, omnivorous and piscivores increased significantly. From 1960 to 1980, the proportion of insectivores was higher than other reaches at source area and upstream, then began to decrease along the river continuum from reaches with elevation of 2000-3000 m; while the proportion of piscivores was lower than other reaches at source area and upstream, then began to increase along the river continuum from reaches with elevation of 2000-3000 m. From 1980 to 2019, the proportion of insectivores decreased along river continuum from source area, and that of piscivores increased from source area to midstream but decreased in downstream. Development of cascade hydropower, water pollution, insufficient water flow, overfishing and invasion of alien fish were important factors causing the spatiotemporal variations of fish feeding guilds in Yellow River basin.