FISH DIVERSITY UNDER HUMAN IMPACT: A CASE STUDY OF THE PRIPYAT RIVER BASIN IN UKRAINE

Анотація

The growing direct and indirect human impact on water bodies leads to a change in the hydrological and hydrochemical regime, violation of the living conditions of aquatic organisms and fish fauna in particular, and, in some cases, to complete degradation of aquatic ecosystems. The main threats to the ecosystems and fishes are habitat loss (including disruption of the bottom, removal of structure, water withdrawal, hydrologic alterations, eutrophication, and sediment deposition), introduced species, pollution, human population and consumption (the ultimate cause of everything), and overexploitation. These are the so-called HIPPO 1 , and Montgomery (2003) 2 added another H: historythat is, our inability to learn from past mistakes. In addition, global climate change is recognized as a growing threat to aquatic ecosystems and fishes (IPCC 2007) 3;4 . Fish communities change quantitatively (decrease in abundance, patrticularly species with high commercial value) and qualitatively (decrease in biodiversity, particularly in endemic native species) 5 . The decrease in abundance and diversity of fishes is a reflection of humans' attitude towards biological resources; neglect to act according to basic rules for conservation of biotic productivity and diversity.

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