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Anthropogenic impact on early-life stages of rheophilic fish
BARTOŇ, Daniel
This study focuses on the problems faced by the early-life stages of fish living in a river influenced by reservoirs and suggests possible solutions to enhance recruitment. The model fish for the study is the asp (Leuciscus aspius), known for its significant and protected population in the Želivka Reservoir, from where it migrates for reproduction to the tributary of Želivka River. The asp migrates upstream in spring to spawn in shallow, fast-flowing waters. At a research site, the adult population of asp is monitored using passive telemetry. Fish are caught, tagged, and released back into the reservoir. The asp population faces threats due to hydropeaking and river fragmentation. Hydropeaking causes egg detachment from the pebbles and their sedimentation in the reservoir. The study suggests that water should not exceed a velocity of 0.7 m×s-1 at the spawning ground. Periodically increasing discharge also shifts spawning fish outside their preferred spawning site, causing disruption of spawning and potentially lowering recruitment. A flowdeflector was built to protect newly spawned eggs from hydropeaking. However, there are additional threats to the asp recruitment process such as egg consumption by non-indigenous fish like common bream (Abramis brama). Water flow conditions are crucial for the conservation of rheophilic fish, as these fish, aside from habitat loss and modification, also face newly interacting generalist fish species moving from lentic to lotic sections of the system. Fish communities can be affected by reservoir construction far upstream, and these anthropogenic habitat alterations have severe negative impacts on threatened rheophilic fish recruitment.
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