Habitat Characterization and Fish Community Structure in the River Ghaghara, India

Abstract

Habitat characterization, water quality assessment and freshwater fish diversity investigation of Ghaghara River flowing in Uttar Pradesh, India was carried out. River water was clear except at site S5 with pebbly and sandy substrate. The mean water quality of study sites was found to have pH 7.8, water temperature 25.8°C, dissolved oxygen 5.4 mg/l, total hardness 212 mg/l, alkalinity 179 mg/l (as CaCO3), Turbidity 16.9 NTU, NO3 1.7 mg/l, NO2 0.04 mg/l, ammonia 0.3 mg/l and conductivity 390.2 μS/cm. Altogether 62 fish species were recorded during the study. We used principal component analyses (PCA) to determine the influence of environmental conditions on species occurrences and assemblage characteristics. The MANOVA on habitat parameters showed a difference in habitat structure among the sampling sites. Our results suggest the significance of local environment influences on the fishes of conservation importance and their assemblage distinctiveness in an unimpacted river and provide a framework and reference conditions to maintain restoration efforts of relatively altered fish habitats in tropical rivers of India.

Keywords

• Icthyofauna
• habitat characteristics
• water quality
• conservation
• Ghaghara River