RT Journal Article
T1 Freshwater Fish Biodiversity in a Large Mediterranean Basin (Guadalquivir River, S Spain): Patterns, Threats, Status and Conservation
A1 Sáez Gómez, Pedro
A1 Prenda Marín, José
AB The Guadalquivir River Basin is one of the largest in the Iberian Peninsula and has aremarkable freshwater biodiversity. Although many studies on hydrological regimes or water qualityhave been conducted in this basin the biodiversity of freshwater fish, as well as their distributionand conservation status, has never been globally addressed as in other Iberian basins. In this context,we synthesized information on freshwater fish using field procedures and a bibliographic search.Fish distribution patterns at different spatial scales and general environmental conditions wereanalyzed as well as the conservation status of the fish community. We documented the presence of40 species (20 native and 20 exotic) in the basin during the 20th century until today. However, we onlycaptured 18 species during the field sampling, with a prevalence for any native species of less than23% (except Luciobarbus sclateri). The highest species richness was found in mid reaches, while thelower reaches had very low diversity values. Around 50% of species are threatened; according to theIUCN, several species are declining at an alarming rate and others are probably extinct and/or theircurrent status is unknown. Human disturbances during the last few decades have caused seriouschanges in fish distribution and consequently to their conservation status. Hydrological alterations,intensive agriculture and introduced species are probably the principal reasons for Guadalquivir’sichthyofauna imperilment. Our study indicates an urgent and real need to identify important areasfor fish conservation to guarantee a minimum fish biodiversity conservation over the long term, aswell as effective strategies for fish recovery where it still is possible
PB MDPI
SN 1424-2818 (electrónico)
YR 2022
FD 2022-10
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/21507
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/21507
LA eng
NO Sáez-Gómez, P., & Prenda, J. (2022). Freshwater Fish Biodiversity in a Large Mediterranean Basin (Guadalquivir River, S Spain): Patterns, Threats, Status and Conservation. In Diversity (Vol. 14, Issue 10, p. 831). MDPI AG. https://doi.org/10.3390/d14100831
NO This research was funded by the Junta de Andalucía, Convocatoria de Proyectos de Excelencia (P07-RNM-03309), and was carried out at the Centro Internacional de Estudios y ConvencionesEcológicas y Medioambientales (CIECEM) of the University of Huelva.We wish to thank everyone from the CIECEM for their invaluable help andlogistic support
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 15 jun 2026