Page 130 - 《水产学报》2025年第6期

田盼盼，等 水产学报, 2025, 49(6): 069310

Risk assessment of invasive fish species in the middle and upper reaches of
the Yangtze River (including Dongting Lake)

TIAN Panpan , DENG Huatang , WANG Daoqun , YU Lixiong , GAO Lei , LIU Shaopin ,
CHEN Daqing , DUAN Xinbin , WANG Ke , TIAN Huiwu *
National Agricultural Science Observing and Experimental Station of Chongqing, Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute,
Chinese Academy of Fishery Science, Wuhan 430223, China

Abstract: To understand the current status of exotic fishes in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and to assess
their invasion risks, investigations on exotic fishes were conducted using fixed gill nets, drift nets, and ground traps at 22 river
sections of the main stream and tributaries of the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, as well as at Dongting Lake
and Honghu Lake from May to July and from October to December in 2022. The results showed that a total of 135 species of
fish belonging to 8 orders 24 families 20 species of exotic fishes were collected during the survey period. The investigation in
the Jiangjin section revealed the highest number of exotic fish species, with the highest occurrence frequency being the exotic
sturgeon. Through the Fish Invasion Screening Test (FIST), six high risk invasive fish species were preliminarily screened,
including Oreochromis niloticus, Coptodon zillii and Cyprinus carpio. Further analysis of invasion risk was conducted using
the Fish Invasion Screening Kit (FISK), and a total of 8 species of fish were identified as high invasion risk, C. zillii, Clarias
lazera and Cirrhina mrigalancluding. The ROC curve was used to validate the FISK scoring results, which showed an AUC
value of 0.944, indicating that the FISK evaluation method has a high ability to distinguish species invasiveness and can distin-
guish whether foreign fish have invasion risks in the study water under current and climate change scenarios. Research has
shown that based on the risk assessment results of invasive fish species mentioned above, there are already multiple high-risk
fish species in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which may seriously endanger the fishery resources and the
structure and function of the aquatic ecosystem in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It is recommended to
increase the management and control of high-risk invasive species, while strengthening the protection of indigenous fish popu-
lations, in order to avoid significant damage to the Yangtze River indigenous fish resources caused by invasive species. This
study can provide countermeasures for the protection of Yangtze River indigenous fish resources.
Key words: exotic fishes; invasion risk; invasive screening of fish; the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River
Corresponding author: TIAN Huiwu. E-mail: tianhw@yfi.ac.cn
Funding projects: National Key R & D Program of China (2022YFC3202001); National Natural Science Foundation of China
(51909271, 32202942, 51509262); China Three Gorges Construction Engineering Corporation Project (JG/18056B,
JG/18057B); Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, CAFS (2023TD09); Aquatic Science and Tech-
nology Innovation Alliance of Chongqing (2021183)

中国水产学会主办 sponsored by China Society of Fisheries https://www.china-fishery.cn
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