Fish Ecological Studies in Assessing Ecological Integrity of Rivers

This work is intended to assess the integrity of§rivers in Nepal by some fish community base§parameters such as the number of species, composition§and the abundance. However, the variety of other§information regarding fish resource and river§morphology such as spatial and temporal distribution§and density of fish species, size structure of a§species, and substrate and physico-chemical§parameters of the river are also well documented.§Four disturbances, agriculture, urbanization, dams§and weir, and industries were studied here to assess§if there were any impairments on the integrity of the§rivers by them. This work comprised nine rivers of§Nepal in Central and Western Development Region§facing those disturbances. The classifications of§river systems were also tried by using both fish base§variables and abiotic factors using cluster analysis§and discriminant analysis respectively and the§results for these were remarkable. Finally, it was§seen that the fish population dynamics was sensitive§to varieties of disturbances the rivers are facing§indicating that the fish base methods of assessing§water quality and river integrity could be developed§for Nepalese rivers as well.