Evidence of fish community fragmentation in a tropical river upstream and downstream of a dam, despite the presence of a fishway
Dwi Atminarso
A B C * , Lee J. Baumgartner A , Robyn J. Watts A C , Meaghan L. Rourke A D , Jennifer Bond A C and Arif Wibowo B
A Gulbali Institute For Agriculture, Water and Environment, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 789, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.
B Research Center for Conservation of Marine and Inland Water Resources, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jalan Raya Jakarta-Bogor Km 48, Cibinong, West Java 16911, Indonesia.
C School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 789, Albury, NSW 2640, Australia.
D Department of Primary Industries, Narrandera Fisheries Centre, PO Box 182, Narrandera, NSW 2700, Australia.
Abstract
Rapid human population growth has increased demand for water supply, food security, electricity, and flood mitigation worldwide. To address these challenges, governments have invested heavily in the expansion of water infrastructure. However, there is substantial evidence that globally, this infrastructure impacts aquatic ecosystems and can have a significant impact on the persistence of fish species. Despite being well understood globally, the impacts of dams on fish have been given scant attention in Indonesia. Thus, considerations for fish are rarely included in river development planning frameworks.
To document the impact of riverine barriers on Indonesian freshwater fish, we surveyed multiple sites, using three different kinds of gear (gillnets, castnets, and bait traps), upstream and downstream of Perjaya Dam in the Komering River.
The study revealed 13 of 36 species were found only downstream of the dam and five of 36 species were found only above the dam. There were significant differences in fish community composition between upstream and downstream regions using either fish abundance (Pseudo-F = 4.495, d.f. = 1, P < 0.05), species richness (Pseudo-F = 15.837, d.f. = 1, P < 0.05) or species diversity as the response metrics (Pseudo-F = 8.3256, d.f. = 1, P < 0.05).
The local extirpation of many species from upstream areas suggests that the Perjaya Dam hinders fish migration.
Despite containing a fishway, the results indicate that fish are not successfully recolonising upstream reaches.
Keywords: fish community, fish movement, fishway, fragmentation, Indonesia, Komering River, Perjaya Dam, tropical river.
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