River Connectivity; Fishway performance; Fish telemetry; Potamodromous Fish; Belgium
Abstract :
[en] The equipping of barriers with fishways has useful applications for testing hypotheses of fish migration and connectivity in river networks, but multiple passage performance for potamodromous fish is poorly known to date. The aim of this study was to analyse the performance of new fishways installed in
the river Vesdre (Belgium). Thirty-eight barbel (Barbus barbus; mean: 508 mm, 2133 g) and seven chub (Squalius cephalus; mean: 372 mm, 935 g) were captured by electric fishing and fish pass monitoring and were equipped by RFID-tags and/or radio-transmitters. They were translocated downstream of three different fishways (nature-like pool-type, block ramp, and technical pool-type) in the lower course of the Vesdre. Detection antennas connected to automatic receivers were placed downstream and upstream of each fishway to evaluate the approaching rate, the overall and adjusted passage efficiencies, the passage delays, temperature, dates and time period. The best passage performance and passage delays were observed for the block ramp fishway (88%; 9 h median time to pass) in comparison with pool structures (47 and 73%; 94 and 144 h median time to pass, respectively). The overall passage efficiency was 18.2 and 29.4% for two successive fishways, and 18.2% for three fishways. Passages occurred mainly during dark periods at median temperatures of 14 C (barbel) and 12.3 C (chub), and during highly variable flow conditions. This study provided evidence of the success rate of the reestablishment of the ecological continuity in the river Vesdre as a result of the construction of improved fish-passage structures.
Research Center/Unit :
FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège AFFISH-RC - Applied and Fundamental FISH Research Center - ULiège
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Ovidio, Michaël ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Laboratoire de Démographie des poissons et hydroécologie
Sonny, Damien; Profish Technology
Watthez, Quentin; Profish Technology
Goffaux, Delphine; Profish Technology
Detrait, Olivier; SPW-DGO3
Patrice, Orban; SPW-DGO3
Nzau Matondo, Billy ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Laboratoire de Démographie des poissons et hydroécologie
Renardy, Séverine ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Laboratoire de Démographie des poissons et hydroécologie
Dierckx, Arnaud ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution
Benitez, Jean-Philippe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Laboratoire de Démographie des poissons et hydroécologie
Language :
English
Title :
Evaluation of the performance of successive multispecies improved fishways to reconnect a rehabilitated river
Publication date :
August 2020
Journal title :
Wetlands Ecology and Management
ISSN :
0923-4861
eISSN :
1572-9834
Publisher :
Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands
Volume :
28
Pages :
641-654
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Funders :
Service public de Wallonie. Secrétariat général - SPW-DGO3
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