Fish species composition, distribution and community structure in the Fuhe River Basin, Jiangxi Province, China

This study examined the status of fish resources in the Fuhe River Basin, Jiangxi Province, China, from March 2018 to February 2019. A total of 25,915 individuals, belonging to 6 orders, 18 families, 61 genera, and 85 species, were collected from nine sampling sites, with Cypriniformes accounting for 57.65% of the total number of species. Overall, the samples were dominated by mountain-stream species inhabiting middle-lower reaches, with an omnivorous feeding habit and drifting eggs. Moreover, 73 species were defined as of Least Concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, while 10 species were Data Deficient, 1 was Endangered, and 1 was Near Threatened. A total of 29 species were endemic to China. According to the relative importance index, five dominant species (Squalidus argentatus, Xenocypris macrolepis, Cyprinus carpio, Carassius auratus, and Pseudobrama simoni) were recorded. The Margalef richness index, Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Simpson dominance index and Pielou evenness index were subsequently calculated at 8.27, 3.09, 0.70, and 0.09, respectively, while cluster analysis and non-metric multi -dimensional scaling analysis divided the 9 sampling points into 4 clusters at a level of 17%, consistent with the results of Jaccard similarity analysis. ANOSIM further revealed significant differences among fish communities (P < 0.01), while SIMPER showed that the typical species in each group were, to some extent, also the most divergent and dominant species in the community. The results of abundance-biomass comparison curves also showed that the fish communities of the Fuhe River Basin are in a severely disturbed state, although the level of disturbance varied spatially. Thus, the survey of fish resources in Fuhe River Basin plays a vital role in the protection and management of aquatic biological resources and the governance of aquatic ecological environment.& nbsp; (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. CC_BY_NC_ND_4.0