Abstract
In spite of the obvious climate changes effects on the Carpathian Basin hydrographic nets fish fauna, studies on their potential refuge habitats in drought periods are scarce. Multiannual (2016–2021) research of fish in some streams located in the Saxon Villages area during hydrological drought periods identified, mapped, and revealed the refuge aquatic habitats presence, management needs, and importance for fish diversity and abundance for small rivers. The impact of increasing global temperature and other human activities induced hydrologic net and habitats alteration, decreased the refuge habitats needed by freshwater fish, diminished the fish abundance, and influenced the spatial and temporal variation in fish assemblage structure in the studied area. The sites more than one meter in depth in the studied lotic system were inventoried and all 500 m of these lotic systems were also checked to see what species and how many individuals were present, and if there is was difference in their abundance between refuge and non-refuge 500 m sectors. The scarce number of these refuges due to relatively high soil erosion and clogging in those basins and the cumulative effects of other human types of impact induced a high degree of pressure on the fish fauna. Overall, it reduced the role of these lotic systems as a refuge and for reproduction for the fish of downstream Târnava Mare River, into which all of them flow. Management elements were proposed to maintain and improve these refuges’ ecological support capacity.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundWater, the fundamental factor of initiation, persistence, and evolution of life on Earth is ever-present; it influences everything and is a key to comprehending the universe in general [1,2], including the biodiversity structure, distribution, and ecological state [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
The most recent IPCC Climate Report, “Code Red for Humanity”, emphasizes undeniable proofs accompanying the reality that warming has sped up in recent decades; the planet warming is affecting all regions on Earth, and additional heating is anticipated for the century
Due to the fact that in the above-mentioned recent United Nations report that the researched Carpathian area will be characterized by heat waves and severe drought periods [46], and the freshwater biota is under a accentuated risk in general, the aim of this study was to provide information about the state of the local fish species refuge habitats in the context of climate change and human impact effects
Summary
The fundamental factor of initiation, persistence, and evolution of life on Earth is ever-present; it influences everything and is a key to comprehending the universe in general [1,2], including the biodiversity structure, distribution, and ecological state [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. In this framework, the relevance of small water bodies for biodiversity and ecosystem services is not negligible [12,13]. There is much proof that global warming is threatening the biodiversity of our planet, including fish [26,27,28,29,30,31,32], a significant taxonomic group under permanent high global human-impact threats and risks [33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45]
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