**Distribution, Endemism and Conservation Status of Fishes in the Yangtze River Basin, China**

Shaowen Ye, Zhongjie Li, Jiashou Liu, Tanglin Zhang and Songguang Xie *State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences P.R. China* 

#### **1. Introduction**

40 Ecosystems Biodiversity

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> The Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), with a length of 6300 km, is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. It originates from glaciers on the Geladandong Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and follows a sinuous west to east route before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It drains one-fifth of China's land area and its river basin is home to one-third of China's population. Owing to a long geographical history, affluent water resources, an immense variety of lotic and lentic ecosystems, and the differences of physical environments in the upper, middle and lower reaches, the Yangtze River basin (a complex riverine-lacustrine network) is especially rich in fish fauna, representing high fish species richness and endemism in the Palearctic region. Being pregnant with plentiful fish resources, the basin is a cradle of inland fisheries in China. Its fishery yield accounts for about two-thirds of freshwater fishery production of the whole country (Liu & Cao, 1992). The Yangtze River Basin is therefore a globally significant area for preserving fish biodiversity and fishery resources.

> However, the Yangtze River basin is also an area highly impacted by a long history of human use and environmental variation, and is further threatened by China's rapid economic development and the demands of over 400 million people living in the basin during the past few decades. Since the 1950s, loss of fish biodiversity in the Yangtze River basin have been accelerated by a series of direct and indirect effects of human activities and environmental changes, *e.g.* disappear, shrinkage and fragmentation of habitats for fish spawning, feeding and migration, overfishing, water pollution and invasion of exotic species. Documenting regional fish distribution and understanding major threats to fish biodiversity are necessary for protecting and recovering endangered fish species and natural communities. Thus, it is urgently needed to review the problems and threats facing fish resources in the Yangtze River basin, and to provide crucial information about which species are at risk and what factors threaten their existence for developing successful conservation strategies to slow the loss of fish biodiversity.

> Since the 1930s, Chinese ichthyologists have investigated fish fauna and biodiversity in the Yangtze River basin, and a large amount of information has been published on taxonomic,

Distribution, Endemism and Conservation Status of Fishes in the Yangtze River Basin, China 43

Hukou downward to the mouth of the river is the lower reach, with a length of about 930 km. The drainage area is about 12×104 km2. This segment of the river wanders among plains and hills, and several large interior lakes, such as Lake Caohu and Lake Taihu in association with many tributaries, drain into the reach (Chen et al., 2000). In the estuary confluent with

Our synthesis (see Appendix 1) showed that there are 416 fish species and subspecies (16 orders and 33 families) known from the entire Yangtze River basin, which amount to about 40% of the total freshwater fishes in China (Zhu, 1995) and far exceed the number of any other river systems in China. For example, the Pearl River has 294 and the Yellow River only has 150 fish species and subspecies (Cao, 1992). Of these fishes in the Yangtze River basin, 362 species and subspecies spend all their lives in fresh water (Table 1), and 11 species of migratory fishes include eight anadromous species (*Acipenser sinensis*, *Macrura reevesi*, *Coilia ectenes*, *C. mystus*, *Myxocyprinus asiaticus*, *Hemisalanx prognathus*, *Takifugu obscurus*, *T. flavidus*) and three catadromous species (*Anguilla japonica*, *A. marmorata*, *Trachidermus fasciatus*). The rest 43 species chiefly live in the brackish water of the estuary with a wide range of salt tolerance, moving regularly between coasts and the estuary. A significant feature of the fish fauna in the Yangtze River basin is the large amount of endemic fishes (Table 1). There are 178 endemic

> Species using freshwater b

Acipenseriformes 2 3 1 14 27 Anguilliformes 0 2 0 6 26 Clupeiformes 0 3 0 79 85 Cypriniformes 280 280 150 3268 3268 Siluriformes 40 40 20 2740 2750 Osmeriformes 6 8 1 82 86 Salmoniformes 2 2 1 45 66 Mugiliformes 0 4 0 1 7 Atheriniformes 1 1 0 210 240 Beloniformes 1 2 0 98 104 Cyprinodontiformes 3 3 0 996 1008 Synbranchiformes 1 1 0 96 99 Scorpaeniformes 0 1 0 60 62 Perciformes 26 50 4 2040 2335 Pleuronectiformes 0 4 0 10 20 Tetraodontiformes 0 12 1 14 22 Total 362 416 178 9759 10205 a Data are cited from Nelson (2006). b Freshwater species plus those species frequently occurring in freshwater that may otherwise be diadromous or simply entering fresh water in substantial numbers or

Table 1. Species number of fishes in the Yangtze River basin and in the world

Yangtze River basin World a

Endemic species

Freshwater species

Species using freshwater b

the East China Sea, the river forms a trumpet shaped delta.

species that occupy 42.8% of the total number of fishes in the basin.

Freshwater species

in a substantial portion of their range.

**2.2 Faunal composition** 

Order

biological and biogeographical aspects. In the present chapter, we collected and synthesized these scattered data from relevant literature including Chu (1955), Du (1962), Anonymous (1976, 1980), Yang (1987), Zeng (1990), Zhang (1991), Wu & Wu (1992), Ding (1994), Huang & Xie (1996), Chen (1998), Yue & Chen (1998), Li et al. (1998), Chu et al. (1999), Song et al. (1999), Yue (2000), Ni & Zhu (2005), Xie & Yang (2005), Zhuang et al. (2006), Ye et al. (2006; 2007), Ye (2007), Zhang & Li (2007), Wu & Zhong (2008), Zhang et al. (2008). Threatened status of fish species in the Yangtze River basin was compiled from China Species Red List (Wang & Xie, 2009) and China Red Data Book of Endangered Animals (Yue & Chen, 1998) into five threatened categories: extinct (EX), extinct in the wild (EW), critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN) and vulnerable (VU). Our main purposes were (1) to investigate large-scale distribution and endemic species composition of fishes in different reaches of the Yangtze River basin, (2) to rank the major threats to impaired or extinct fish species and quantify the relative contribution of intrinsic factors to fish endangerment, and (3) to provide recommendations for fish biodiversity conservation in the Yangtze River basin.
