Assemblage, Abundance and Diversity of Fish Species in River Dhaleshwari, Bangladesh

Abstract

Biodiversity in realism is a measure of the adherents of species that characterize a biological community and thought to be one of the extremely imperative aspects of community establishment and structure. The study regarding the fish biodiversity is very much needed as it is directly related to the fisheries resource structure and also contributes significantly towards resource richness. Therefore the present study was performed to evaluate the concurrent fish species composition, abundance and some major fish biodiversity indices of the River Dhaleshwari of Bangladesh. The study area was about 564.20 ha and 20 kilometers long along the main stream of the river Dhaleshwari. The starting point was the Tulshikhali bridge, Keranigonj and the end point was Balur char, Munshigonj. The geographical locations of the sampling stations were between 90̊ 17ʹ E to 90̊ 25ʹ E and 23º 40´ N to 23º 37´ N. The study was conducted between August’2015 and October’2016.The fish species diversity showed spatial variation among the sampling stations. The biodiversity appraisal validates Shannon index (0.122-0.634) with highest value in Balur char and lowest in Pathor ghata; Simpson’s index (0.325-0.893) with utmost valuation for the Pathor ghata and lowermost for Balur char; Pielou’s evenness index (0.117-0.588) with maximum value for the Balur char and least for Pathor ghata; Margaleff index (4.793-7.438) with uppermost value for the Balur char and minimum in Tulshikhali; topmost abundance of fish was recorded from Tulshikhali and least for Balur char and maximum number of unique species was recorded for Tulshikhali and minimum from Balur char. Moreover, the current study correspondingly has ascertained the pragmatism and efficacy of biodiversity assessment to scrutinize and epitomize fisheries resources for better management of the river Dhaleshwari. Effective management approach should be applied for precisely maintaining the fish habitat health and ecological condition intact before it’s too late.