Diel pattern of utilization of shallow sandy habitats by fishes in temperate lowland rivers of various size
-
1
University of Agriculture in Krakow, Department of Ichthyobiology and Fisheries, Poland
-
2
University of Prešov, Department of Ecology, Slovakia
Diel changeover of fish assemblages in inshore habitats of lowland rivers is a world-wide phenomenon. Predator avoidance, resources partitioning and differences in food availability are usually given as main drivers of variation observed in fish presence. Researches performed in different European rivers have led to contradictory results, indicating either nocturnal or diurnal increase in species richness and abundance. It has been hypothesized that relative differences in availability of certain type of habitats (inshore vs. offshore) resulting from various size (discharge) of rivers might explain these discrepancies. We performed a series of 24-h samplings at three rivers differing in discharge: Vistula (~120 m3s-1), Nida (~22 m3s-1), and Czarna Nida (~5 m3s-1). Fish were caught by fine-meshed beach seine nets (6 × 2 m or 15 × 3 m) every 3 h in May, July/August and November 2014 and February 2015.
We caught 1792 specimens classified into 24 species. In all instances the communities were dominated by small-sized cyprinids (dace, bleak, common gudgeon, whitefin gudgeon, and roach). NMDS ordination indicated a clear distinction between diurnal and nocturnal samples. PERMANOVA supported significance of time of day on the structure of fish assemblages. Despite seasonal modifications, in all three rivers an uniform pattern of diel changes in the composition of fishes occurred. Both species richness and abundance noticeably increased just after the dusk, then consecutively decreased towards the dawn and remained at constantly lower levels during the daytime.
This suggests that overall changeover of fish assemblage reflects interspecific interactions ongoing in a given stream section and species composition might explain differences observed between various rivers better than the river discharge.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the project NCN 2013/09/N/NZ9/01448 and Polish-Slovak joint research project APVV SK-PL-0077-12. The authors are obliged to students of the University of Agriculture in Kraków participating in the field work.
Keywords:
Diel migrations,
Riparian zones,
Lowland rivers,
Temporal variations,
Riverine system,
Fish assemblages
Conference:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology, Porto, Portugal, 7 Sep - 11 Sep, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Ecology, Conservation and Invasive Species
Citation:
Nowak
M,
Koščo
J,
Klaczak
A,
Hajdú
J,
Szczerbik
P,
Fedorčák
J and
Popek
W
(2015). Diel pattern of utilization of shallow sandy habitats by fishes in temperate lowland rivers of various size.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
XV European Congress of Ichthyology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2015.03.00259
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
31 Dec 2015;
Published Online:
31 Dec 2015.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Michał Nowak, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Department of Ichthyobiology and Fisheries, Kraków, 30-198, Poland, michal.nowak@ur.krakow.pl