Invasion and impacts of alien fish species in the Ganga River, India

Abstract

In this study, we document an increasing trend of catches of alien fish species from the Ganga River system. The changing fishery during 1980 to 2011 and the fish yield rate (kg km⁻¹) are positively correlated with an invasion coefficient index (I_xi) of alien species within the river. The reproductive propagule pressure (PPP) of alien fishes (Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis niloticus, Aristichthys nobilis, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and Clarias gariepinus) was determined and found to be 19.45×10⁶ for C. carpio, 0.33×10⁶ for O. niloticus and 0.82×10⁶ for A. nobilis at confluences suggesting that these alien species may be migrating into new habitats. Further, these invaded species exhibited all reproductive stages, indicating their likely establishment within the river. The trophic spectrum of alien fishes spanned all levels and the gut repetitive index (GRI) indicated that that food items in most of the fishes were similar showing early trends of food-web alteration and biotic homogenization. The results of this study suggested a continuous decline in the catch of local fishes by wet weight, particularly Indian major carps (IMC) from 128.91 kg km⁻¹ to 38.58 kg km⁻¹ owing to increased catches of alien species from nil to 384.27 kg km⁻¹. Invasion of alien species in the Ganga River represented one of many possible causes of the decline in river health and overall loss of native aquatic communities.