The current status of aquatic biological resources and their habitat cross-border section in the Dnieper river within the Smolensk region Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus

Abstract

The study presents materials on the status of aquatic biological resources and their habitat in the Dnieper River within the territory of the Russian and the Belarus. In the recent period, there has been hardly any complex fishery research in the upper reach of the river within the boundaries of the Smolensk Region due to the lack of commercial fishing; the same can be applied to the reach of the river within the Vitebsk Region in Belarus. The collection of materials and scientific and research accounting network surveys for monitoring the state of aquatic bioresources were carried out on the Dnieper River as part of the research in 2019 according to a preplanned grid of stations. When fishing for scientific research purposes, 20 net-stops of smooth frame nets were made in the Russian section, and 9 net-stops were made in the Belarusian section. In the Russian section of the Dnieper River, the species composition was 16 species of fish, and in the Belarusian section — 22 species. The main catch in the Russian section is roach 29% and chub 20%, in the Belarusian section bream — from 3 to 46%, roach — from 19 to 63% and gustera — from 1.8 to 33%, in a slightly smaller number of river perch (on average up to 10%). The share value of roach and guster tends to decrease from the upper to the lower areas, bream-on the contrary to increase, the value of perch is approximately equal in all areas. In the size structure of the caught fish species, there is a dynamic with a good reproductive potential.