Fish Composition and Trophic Guild Analysis as a Collection of Basic Data for Ecosystem Health Assessments in Yeongsan Lake

Fish Composition and Trophic Guild Analysis as a Collection of Basic Data for Ecosystem Health Assessments in Yeongsan Lake

The objectives of this study were to analyze fish compositions, based on trophic guilds and tolerance guilds and determine community characteristics structure at five sampling sites of Yeongsan Lake during July 2006-May 2007. Total number of species sampled was 30 species and the number was 1350. Cyprinidae (77%) and Centrarchidae (15.7%) dominated the community and then followed by Cobitidae(2.7%), Gobiidae(2.4%), Mugilidae (0.5%), and others (0.1%). The relative abundance of tolerant and omnivore species at all sites was 63% and 77% of the total, respectively, suggesting an ecological degradations in the Lake. Exotics species such as large mouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), which is a top-carnivore in the water distributed at all sampling sites, implying that ecological disturbance was severe based on previous reference of US EPA (1991). Also, we found external anomalies such as external deformities, bleeding and tumors and not found migratory fish. Analysis of fish community structure showed that species diversity index and richness index was the highest in Site 1 and the dominance index was the highest in Site 2. In this study, high proportions of tolerant species and omnivore species, widespread exotic species, and frequent observations of abnormal fish. Such problems may be directly or indirectly associated with high nutrient enrichments and the reduced flow velocity by the dam construction. The ecosystem restoration by dam removal or removal of exotic top-carnivore fish may be one of the best strategies for better lak management.