International Workshop
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27 November, 2012 @ Kyushu University, JAPAN
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International Workshop on
Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation in Asia
November 26th -27th 2012, Kyushu University, Japan
Overall schedule
25 Nov. Arrive in Hakata, Fukuoka (Closest airport is Fukuoka Airport) 26 Nov. Workshop (Ito Campus, Kyushu University)
27 Nov. Workshop (Ito Campus, Kyushu University) 28 Nov. Excursion
Departure (in the evening of the 28th or on the 29th )
*Important*
For Guest speakers: Please submit your boarding passes (stubs) of all of your flights to the venue after use .
Venue
INAMORI Hall, at the first floor of INAMORI Center, Ito Campus, Kyushu University 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395
(See #36 of the map on page 5.)
*We will have a university bus between Hotel Leopalace and the venue during the period of the workshop and excursion on the 28th. Please come to the hotel lobby each morning according to the schedule. (See page 3&4.)
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Hotel
Hotel Leopalace Hakata 2-5-33 Hakataeki higashi Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, 812-0013
Phone:092-482-1212 Fax :092-482-1289
http://www.leopalacehotels.jp/english/hakata/
3min-walk from Hakata Station
Below is the hotel address in Japanese
Directions
・From Fukuoka airport to Hakata Station
Take subway KUKO(Airport) line and get off at Hakata, and walk for about 3 mins from CHIKUSHI gate. *Subway Fukuoka–kuko (Airport) station is directly connected to Domestic terminal 2.
Free connecting bus service between Domestic and International Terminals runs about every 10 mins.
http://www.fuk-ab.co.jp/english/frame_index.html
・From Hakata station to the hotel
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Weather & Clothing
It usually starts to get cold in November in Fukuoka and is slightly drier than other months. Average temperature in November ：High 15℃ Low:7℃
Suggested clothing: Jackets, sweaters and other similar kinds of tops.
Social event
Welcome party 27th November, 19:00-21:00 at Zokkon (Japanese restaurant)
(See the map on page 2.) Cost: 3500yen including drinks
Urgent contact
Time table
Day 1 (26November)
08:30-09:30 Hotel Leopalace Hakata to Ito Campus (hired bus)
10:00-10:10
Opening remarks and workshop aim Shin-ichi NAKANO
10:20-10:40
Introduction of AP-BON Tetsukazu YAHARA
10:40-11:25 Keynote lecture
"Biodiversity Assessments for Conservation and Management of Freshwater Resources" Ian HARRISON
11:25-12:00
"Utilization of Freshwater Fishes Biodiversity as Income Source of Poor Rural People (Case Study in Pampangan subdistrict of South Sumatra Province, Indonesia)"
Dina MUTHMAINNAH, Zulkifli DAHLAN, SUSANTO, A. Karim GAFFAR, and Dwi P. PRIADI.
12:00-12:35
"Biodiversity of various tropical lakes at the main islands in Indonesia"
R. KURNIAWAN, TRIYANTO, and L. SUBEHI
12:35-13:45 Lunch
13:45-14:20
"Status of freshwater fish biodiversity in the Yangtze River Basin, China"
Jianhua LI and Liangliang HUANG
14:20-14:55
"Aquatic macrophytes diversity in Erhai Lake and the conservation strategy"
Xiao-Lin ZHANG, Jun XU, Te CAO and Le-Yi NI
14:55-15:30
"Biodiversity of Chinese Freshwater Macrophytes in Lakes"
J. XU, M. ZHANG Q. TIAN and B. FANG
15:30-15:50 Coffee break
15:50-16:25
"Diversity of Fishes in Vietnamese Mekong" T.D. DINH, K. SHIBUKAWA, K. UTSUGI, T.X. LOI
and N.T. PHUONG
16:25-17:00
"The challenges and problems in conserving freshwater fish diversity in Malaysia" Mohd Shalahuddin ADNAN, Zawawi DAUD, Y.
KANO, T. YAMASHITA, T. SATO, Y. SHIMATANI
17:20-18:20 Ito Campus to Hotel Leopalace Hakata (hired bus)
Day 2 (27 November)
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10:00-10:45 Keynote lecture
"Ecological Character Description: An
Ecosystem-based Tool for Dynamic Monitoring on Freshwater Biodiversity"
C. LU, L. GUAN, GC. LEI, YM. ZHANG, YF. JIA
10:45-11:20
"Fish and Fisheries of the Lower Mekong Basin" So NAM, Peter DEGEN and Eric BARAN
11:20-11:55
"Freshwater fish diversity in Thailand and the challenges on its prosperity due to river work" T. JUTAGATE, C. GRUDPAN and A.
SUVANNARAKSHA
11:55-13:05 Lunch
13:05-13:25
Introduction of S9 Freshwater project Noriko TAKAMURA
13:25-13:50
"Temporal changes in taxanomic and functional diversity of native freshwater fish assemblages in Japanese lakes"
Shin-ichiro MATSUZAKI
13:50-14:15
"Historical and geographical patterns of benthic macro-invertebrate biodiversity in the ancient Lake Biwa, Japan"
J. SHIBATA, Z. KARUBE, Y. SAKAI, T.
TAKEYAMA, I. TAYASU, Y. SATOH, S. YACHI, S. NAKANO and N. OKUDA
14:15-14:40
"Assessment of biodiversity in irrigation ponds as refugia for aquatic life"
Noriko TAKAMURA, Toshikazu KIZUKA, Yuji SAKUNO, Shinya ISHIDA, Taku KADOYA, and Munemitsu AKASAKA
14:40-15:05
"Biodiversity and conservation of mire ecosystems in Hokkaido, Japan"
H. FUJITA, M. TAKADA, H. KOBAYASHI, E. NIIMI, H. KURA
15:05-15:20 Coffee break
15:20-15:45
"The evaluation of river and floodplain ecosystems based upon irreplaceability, rarity and diversity of aquatic species in Japan, and effects of river regulation and global warming on indicator species" F.NAKAMURA, T. AKASAKA, M, INOUE, Y,
KAWAGUCHI, H. MITSUHASHI, N. ONIKURA, Y, MIYAKE, I. KATANO, T. MORI and H. ICHIYANAGI
15:45-16:10
"Satellite remote sensing of inland waters and their watersheds by monitoring aquatic macrophytes, cyanobacterial bloom and impervious surfaces" Y. OYAMA, F. YANG, B. MATSUSHITA and T.
FUKUSHIMA
16:10-16:35
"Online database of Mekong fishes: a method to integrate and publicize a large amount of data" Yuichi KANO, and Yukihiro SHIMATANI
16:35-17:30 Discussions for future collaboration
17:45-18:45 Ito Campus to Hotel Leopalace Hakata (hired bus)
19:00-21:00 Welcome Party at Zokkon
Day 3 (28 November)
09:15-10:15 Hired bus; Hotel Leopalace Hakata to Ito Campus 10:15-11:30 Explore the “Biodiversity Zone” in Ito Campus 11:30-11:40 Hired bus; Ito Campus to Imazu
11:40-12:45 Bird watching around Imazu Tidal Land 12:45-13:00 Hired bus; Imazu to Miyanoura 13:00-14:00 Lunch at Miyanoura (Japanese fish food) 14:00-15:00 Hired bus; Sightseeing of Ito-Shima coastal areas
(Futamigaura)
15:00-16:00 Ito Campus to Hotel Leopalace Hakata (hired bus)
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Keynote Lecture
Biodiversity Assessments for Conservation and Management of Freshwater Resources
I.J. Harrison
IUCN/ Conservation International Biodiversity Assessment Unit, c/o Conservation International, 2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22202, USA
Fresh water covers only about 0.8% of the surface area of the Earth. Consequently, freshwater ecosystems have often received less attention in science and conservation than the larger terrestrial and marine biomes. Nevertheless, more than 126,000 freshwater species live in or depend upon freshwater ecosystems for their life history. These species are vital for maintaining the proper function of the freshwater ecosystems where they live. Asia has relatively high levels of species richness, yet we lack adequate information about many of these species or the condition of the ecosystems in which they are found. To address this knowledge gap, IUCN has been conducting assessments of the distribution and conservation status of freshwater species through several parts of Asia. This information can be used to identify global priorities for conservation. The information from biodiversity surveys, such as those conducted by IUCN, can be also compared with data sets on other biological, physical, and socio-economic characteristics of wetlands around the world, to make even more comprehensive analyses of the state of these wetlands. This information can also identify where there are data gaps that can be filled by remotely sensed information, or further field monitoring and surveying. Organisations such as Ramsar, GEO BON, and several academic and non-governmental organizations are interested in developing a framework for bringing together these freshwater data sets and analyzing them. One proposed output is the development of a tool that will define the ecological health of watersheds in terms of how well they provide ecosystem services to human communities. This will assist landscape managers and policy-makers implement optimum strategic adaptive management of freshwater systems, based on the best available scientific information on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Utilization of Freshwater Fishes Biodiversity as Income Source of Poor Rural People
(Case Study in Pampangan Subdistrict of South Sumatra Province, Indonesia)
D. Muthmainnah 1, Z. Dahlan2, R. H. Susanto2, A. K. Gaffar3, and D. P. Priadi2
1 Researcher, Research Institute for Inland Fisheries, Jln. Beringin no. 8 Mariana-Palembang-30763,
South Sumatra, Indonesia and Candidate Doctor of Environmental Doctoral Programme, Sriwijaya University, Jln. Padang Selasa no. 524 Palembang-30139, South Sumatra, Indonesia
2 Professor, Environmental Doctoral Programme, Sriwijaya University, Jln. Padang Selasa no. 524
Palembang-30139, South Sumatra, Indonesia
3 Senior Researcher, Research Institute for Inland Fisheries, Jln. Beringin no. 8
Mariana-Palembang-30763, South Sumatra, Indonesia
South Sumatra Province is covered by 1.1 million hectares of swamp land, which were considered as marginal land due to wet and muddy conditions as well as presence of wild animals. During wet season, the swamp ecosystem is a productive fishing ground which provide fish for neighboring community and source of income for fishermen in the area. The current system categorize the swamp area in Pampangan Sub District three (3) types according to source of water. Overall, the swamp is inhabited by 46 species of fishes and prawn. Type-2 swamp is populated by 31 species while 27 and 16 species was found in the type-3 and type-1 swamp respectively. Type-2 swamp comprises the most diversity. Resources allocation for fisheries is managed by local goverment into 21 water bodies with artificial border. Each water body is exploited by a group of two to ten fishermen using various fishing gears, the most effective is barrier with box trap (lulung). This fishing gear produces around 624,170 kg fish per year, is a non selective gear which catches 23 fish species. The other type i.e. the long line
(rawai) is the most selective gear which caught only seven carnivorous fish species.
Data collected from this study indicate that fish yield were variable among water bodies from 15,000 kg per year in Lebung Asem to 220,900 kg per year in Rasau Jungkal depending on ecological condition in the swamp. Thus, the management of fishing activity is very important in keeping fish biodiversity and in order to increase the fish yield, therefore the income of fisherman would be increased.
Biodiversity of various tropical lakes at the main islands in Indonesia
R. Kurniawan1, Triyanto1, and L. Subehi1
1 Research Center for Limnology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences – LIPI, Kompleks LIPI Cibinong
16911, Cibinong - Indonesia
Indonesia is one of the 12 megadiversity countries where the second rank for the numbers of recorded freshwater fish species and the top country for listed freshwater fish species in Asia. Indonesian lakes has 521 natural lakes, over than 100 reservoirs, covering about 21,000 km2 of area. Moreover, resettling approximately 500 km3 of water volume and its functioning for both ecological and economic services. The Indonesian Ministry of National Environment stated that the 15 lakes are nationally treasured as the priority of environmental crisis to resolve. One of factors as a criteria for these national priority is biodiversity, including native (endemic) or alien species for both of fishes and aquatic macrophytes. The study will be focused on those priority lakes as representative tropical lake. The data were obtained from 1990 until 2012. Field survey and collection data were done for this investigating. According to our analysis, we found high biodiversity for fishes and aquatic macrophytes at Lake Sentarum and Lake Kerinci (217 and 40 species, recpectively). To the contrary, low biodiversity were observed at Lake Sentani and Lake Rawa Danau (10 and 2 species, respectively). Moreover, the dominant family were found for fishes (Cyprinidae, Belontiidae, Bagridae, Cichlidae and Siluridae) and aquatic macrophytes (Cyperaceae, Poaceae, Hydrocharitaceae, Onagraceae and Potamogetonaceae). From our data, it seemed that it is necessary to explore more completely for biodiversity at the eastern of Indonesia. In addition, trend of current and future biodiversity cannot be concluded in this paper due to lake of observed timeline data. At least, this paper could describe the biodiversity of various tropical lake at the main islands in Indonesia. It was suggested that despite many contraints occured but there are challenges that should be overcome by the researchers to reveal the true beauty of the natural Indonesian lakes biodiversity.
Status of freshwater fish biodiversity in the Yangtze River Basin, China
Jianhua Li1*, and Liangliang Huang1, 2
1 College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China 2College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, China
Chinese freshwater fish numbers are over 1000 species, and at least 717 species in 33 families inhabit rivers, and another 66 species spend part of their lives in rivers while others are mainly confined to estuarine reaches but occasionally swim upstream. Information on freshwater fish biodiversity in the Yangtze River Basin was synthesized. 361 species were found in the basin, of which 177 species are endemic to the Yangtze River and 25 species are categorized as endangered on the China Red Data Book for fishes. Around 80% of the species (including 124 endemics) in the Yangtze River occur in its upper course above the Three Gorges Dam. As to species richness patterns along the altitude gradient, non-endemic and endemic fishes were different. Non-endemic richness showed a significant decrease with increasing elevation, whereas endemic richness had two peaks including a major peak around 500-m and a minor peak near 1800-m. Species density had two peaks at mid elevation zones for endemic and non-endemic fishes, such as 1500-2000m and 3500-4000m for endemic fishes, and 500-1000m and 3500-4000m for non-endemic fishes, respectively. In addition, structure of endemic fish assemblages in the upper Yangtze River was highly correlated with local topographic and geomorphic characteristics.
The combined effects of pollution, habitat degradation and overexploitation have reduced fish stocks dramatically. Hydrological alterations are perhaps the largest threat to fish biodiversity in the Yangtze River Basin, such as dam construction and disconnection between river and its lakes. Conservation measures which were applied currently to protect the fish biodiversity in the basin exert ineffectively, such as nature reserve establishment, artificial propagation and releasing. Therefore, in order to preserve fish biodiversity more effectively in this area, reserve networks, rather than a single national nature reserve, should be established. Moreover, improved artificial releasing and habitat rehabilitation should be considered urgently.
Aquatic macrophytes diversity in Erhai Lake and the conservation strategy.
Xiao-Lin Zhang, Jun Xu, Te Cao, and Le-Yi Ni
Donghu Experimental Station of Lake Ecosystems, State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, People’s Republic of China
The species diversity of submerged macrophytes in Erhai Lake has varied dramatically during the past sixty years. According to the first limnology research work in Erhai Lake, there was only 8 species of submerged plant in the lake. After that, the species diversity increased dramatically and reached the highest level in 1980s (maximum 21 submerged macrophytes in 1986). The increasing of aquatic species diversity could be attributed to several reasons: increased nutrient, lower water level, increased secchi depth and species immigration. However, the former research works pay more attention to the first three reasons, because there was a construction project of dams in the upstream of the major inflow of the lake during 1970s, which played a very important role in the regulation of Erhai Lake, especially the water level. But the species immigration was also an important factor contributed to increase species diversity. Furthermore, there was also a case of speciation in this lake. From the very beginning of the new century, according to the change of ecosystem of the lake, the distribution and diversity of submerged macrophytes were reduced. We suggest one of methods to restore submerged vegetation in Erhai Lake is to restore natural regulation of water level, especially during March to May, when most of the submerged macrophytes germinate at that time.
Biodiversity of Chinese Freshwater Macrophytes in Lakes
J. Xu1, M. Zhang2 Q. Tian3, and B. Fang4
1 Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 430072 Wuhan, P. R. China 2Jiangxi Academy of Environmental Sciences, Nanchang 330029, China
3 Institute of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan,
430070, China
4 Faculty of Resources and Environment, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
Aquatic plants contribute to maintaining key functions and related biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems, and to provide the needs of human societies. It is not just China’s economy that’s booming, aquatic plant diversity is losing here, too. To identify the reason for the crisis in inland aquatic environments, and to conduct better conservation and management, we produce an estimate of national species diversity of aquatic plants and report on geographic distribution in China. Our purposes are to highlight main areas of endemicity, and to identify species occurring in China provinces and similarities in species composition amongst these geographic units. To future zoom into the consequence for the dynamics of communities and the main threats to macrophyte occurrence and diversity in some locations, we used Lake Taihu as an instance. Based on the results obtained from field investigation between 1959 and 2009, the species diversity variation and succession of aquatic macrophytes community were summarised and the reasons between the changes and some controlling factors were discussed. The aquatic macrophyte communities in the lake have changed markedly since the natural succession status in the 1950s towards the artificial succession status due to human disturbance observed in this study. The main reasons of species replacement of aquatic plant were human disturbance such as aquaculture in enclosures, mowing and introducing species, and natural factors such as water level fluctuation, life span and reproduction strategy.
Diversity of Fishes in Vietnamese Mekong
T.D. Dinh1, K. Shibukawa2, K. Utsugi2,T.X. Loi1, and N.T. Phuong1
1 Faculty of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Can Tho University, 3/2 Street, Can Tho City, Vietnam 2 Nagao Natural Environment Foundation, 3-10-10 Shitaya, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0004, Japan
Study on diversity of fishes was carried out from 2007 to 2011 in 13 provinces at 113 sampling sites in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. A total of 12,946 fish specimens were collected from which total of 292 fish species (188 genera and 70 families) were identified. Results showed that gobies dominated with total of 54 species, followed by cyprinids with 48 species. The results also indicated that 151 species not shared with the other regions of the Mekong; and 67 species newly recorded from the Mekong, and all these species were collected from estuarine and/or mangrove areas. Among the newly recorded species, 62 species were the first records from all-over the Mekong, in which 24 species are the gobies. The results indicated that further studies on fish diversity in those habitats are needed and Vietnamese Mekong Delta has great responsibility for the conservation of fish diversity in the particular habitats in the coastal areas such as mangrove areas, mudflats and estuarine areas.
The challenges and problems in conserving freshwater fish diversity in Malaysia
Mohd Shalahuddin Adnan1, Zawawi Daud1 , Y. Kano2, T. Yamashita2, T. Sato2, and Y. Shimatani2
1 Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400
Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia
2 Department of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Fukuoka
City, Japan
Freshwater ecosystems in the tropical areas host a diverse endemic fauna including freshwater fish. It is experiencing declines in biodiversity far greater than those in the most affected terrestrial ecosystems, and if trends in human demands for water remain unaltered and species losses continue at current rates, the opportunity to conserve much of the remaining biodiversity in freshwater will vanish. It was reported that over 380 species of freshwater fishes are recorded in Malaysia. According to the latest finding, declining of freshwater species is happened due to several factors such as rapid development and uncontrolled development, over-fishing, habitat modification, water pollution and climate changes. The uncontrolled development along the river bank has increased the sediment rate flow into the river which will destroy the habitat by sedimentation. In addition, point sources and non-point source pollution have also contributed to water quality deterioration and further has affecting the fish diversity. Moreover, low enforcement and lack of awareness among the people on freshwater biodiversity conservation has caused the increasing of fishing activity. The combination and interacting of each factor have resulted in reduction of freshwater fish biodiversity. Conservation of freshwater biodiversity is complicated because water is subject to severe competition among multiple stakeholders. Protection of this precious resource is perhaps the ultimate conservation challenge because it is influenced by the upstream and downstream drainage system, the surrounding land use activities, the riparian zone and engineering works. Thus, a serious integrated river management is needed to ensure the river engineering works will not dismiss the importance of flora and fauna in their design to ensure the existence of this precious resource. All parties either government or NGO’s should play their role in educating the people on the importance of conserving our freshwater fish for our next generation.
Keynote Lecture
Ecological Character Description:
An Ecosystem-based Tool for Dynamic Monitoring on Freshwater Biodiversity
C. Lu, L. Guan, GC. Lei, YM. Zhang, and YF. Jia
School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Qinghuadonglu No.35, Haidian District, Beijing, China 100083
Wetlands and its species around the world are currently undergoing unprecedented losses and degeneration, having serious impacts on wetland ecosystem services that matter tremendously to human wellbeing. Ecological character description (ECD) is a tool developed and promoted by the Ramsar Convention, the purpose of which is to provide the baseline and acceptable change of the ecological characters, including the components, process and service of the wetland. It will identify the current status at specific time and its changes in a certain period. At present, there is no substantial work done or being done concerning ECD in the China and there are only a few countries using the concept for Ramsar sites monitoring and management. In 2011, State Forestry Administration of PRC initiated a joint project with Wetland International, Beijing Forestry University and other organizations to develop guidelines for wetland management and monitoring in China. Zhangjiangkou Mangrove Nature Reserve was selected as pilot site for ECD. Meanwhile, cases were studied on the application of ECD in Poyang Lake and Wuliangsuhai Lake for freshwater biodiversity monitoring. In this presentation, the concept and framework of ECD will be introduced. And 3 cases studies of application and challenge in China as well.
Fish and Fisheries of the Lower Mekong River Basin- Updated Information
So Nam1, Peter Degen1, and Eric Baran2
1Fisheries Programme, Mekong River Commission Secretariat, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2 WorldFish Center, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The inland fisheries of the Mekong River Basin, among the largest in the world, are of enormous importance to more than 60 million people who live in the Lower Mekong basin (LMB). In the river basin where 70% of communities are rural rice farming and fishing are the main occupations for most people. Fisheries resources, including fish and other aquatic animals (OAAs) provide a vital contribution to regional food security and nutrition, cash income and employment, and have strong cultural and religious significance. In the low land areas of the LMB, protein from fisheries resources ranges from 40% to more than 80% of the total intake of animal protein.
The Mekong River has the highest fish biodiversity in the world after the Amazon River. There are about 850 freshwater fish species recorded from the Mekong River Basin (a total that includes some undescribed species of uncertain status), with a total estimate of about 1100 if the possible coastal or marine visitors are included. These can be grouped according to their ecology and migration patterns into (1) black fish, with limited lateral migrations from the river onto floodplains and no longitudinal migrations upstream and downstream; (2) grey fish, not spending the dry season in floodplain pools but not undertaking long distance migrations; and (3) white fish, undertaking long distance migrations, in particularly between lower floodplains and the Mekong mainstream. A large proportion of total fish catch in LMB is dependent on highly migratory fish species (i.e. the white fish). Interestingly, the Mekong River hosts a significant proportion of endemic fish species (approx. 24%).
The current total catches and production from Mekong fisheries (including aquaculture) amounted to about 3.9 million tonnes, of which about 2 million tonnes was from capture fisheries. Total first-sale value is of the order of US$3.9-7.0 billion per year. It is noted that a significant part of the catches is consumed directly by households, thus directly contributing to rural peoples’ subsistence and without appearing in national accounts. Inland fisheries do however make significant contributions to the monetised economies of all four riparian countries. Fisheries accounts for nearly 12% of Cambodia’s GDP, and fisheries value in Lao PDR is equivalent to 7% of the country’s GDP. Although proportionally less important, the Mekong fishery sectors in Thailand and Viet Nam add well over US$750 million to the economies of each country annually.
Freshwater fish diversity in Thailand and the challenges on its prosperity due to river work
T. Jutagate1, C. Grudpan1, and A. Suvannaraksha2
1Fisheries Program, Faculty of Agriculture, Ubon Ratchathani University, Warin Chamrab, Ubon
Ratchathani 34190, Thailand
2Faculty of Fisheries Technology and Aquatic Resources, Maejo University, Sansai, Chiangmai,
Thailand 50290
Thailand locates in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot and is ranked top in freshwater fish diversity, which 843 species, including 13 elasmobranch fishes, were reported. The number of indigenous species is as high as 661 species and the Cyprinid fish is the most hugely speciose and ecologically diverse group. This exceptional fish diversity, incorporated with an extensive inland water area (i.e. about 4.5 million ha) in seven major river basins, supports a huge fishery of about 2.2 x 105 tonnes year-1. However, the integrity of freshwater fish community and sustainability of the inland fisheries are, presently, in question because of many of stressors to river, in particular river work. This river work includes (a) River damming for the irrigation or hydropower purposes in the Mekong Basin (b) Buildings of cascade dams, levee and detention area (or monkey cheek project) for flood protection in the Chao Phraya River Basin and (c) Building of the “anti-salt” dam in the Southern Basin. These infrastructures inevitably cause in the significant effects on the structure and function of river ecosystems. Dams interrupt stream-flow and generate hydrological changes along the integrated continuum of river ecosystems. Moreover, dams also prevent the longitudinal migration of many species. Meanwhile, levees and detention areas reduce floodplain connectivity, decrease aquatic productivity and lose in fish habitats. As consequent, fishes, the most recognizable goods provided by the river system, are unavoidably affected, for example, declines in fish abundance and changes in fish assemblages. Therefore, it is very challenge to fish biologists to quantify the losses and tradeoffs as well as investigate the mitigations to these developments. In this presentation, we reviewed the diversity of freshwater fish in Thailand and pointed out the likely impacts of the river work to the prosperity of freshwater fish of the country.
Introduction of the S9 Freshwater Project
Noriko Takamura
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan
The S9 Freshwater Project is the fourth in a research program “S9”, running from 2011 to 2015 that promotes observation, assessment, and the projection of biodiversity in Asia led by Yahara, T. This program is closely related to AP-BON and is composed of five projects: develop several analytical assessment techniques across the projects and support policy-making (S9-1); assess forest biodiversity, focusing on the species or gene level (S9-2); evaluate ecosystem services (S9-3); study freshwater ecosystems (S9-4); and assess marine ecosystems (S9-5). The total program budget is 3 million dollars per year and it is sponsored by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. More than 100 Japanese researchers participate in the program.
The S9 Freshwater Project aims to propose appropriate assessment methods to express the status of biodiversity in lakes, ponds, wetlands, and rivers, and to prioritize conservation areas (biodiversity hot spots) to avoid further species extinctions in fresh waters. To this end, we are compiling scattered information about aquatic organisms that relates to biodiversity and environments by collecting historic records or conducting our own surveys, and identifying drivers that cause biodiversity loss in each ecosystem.
The project is composed of seven research groups, four of which promote biodiversity assessment research in lakes, ponds, wetlands, and rivers, respectively. Lake Biwa, an ancient lake that has many endemic species, has been subject to multiple biological and environmental monitoring activities; therefore, the Lake Biwa group promotes research at the level of the whole lake ecosystem. The remote sensing group is developing assessment methods for watersheds and aquatic vegetation on a regional scale. The Asian group is conducting field surveys with Asian colleagues, mainly in the Mekong River and in some rivers in Malaysia and China. Additional research collaborations are needed with Asian scientists, particularly in lakes.
We hope that our research activities will help mitigate impacts on freshwater ecosystems that have been damaged by various human activities.
Temporal changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of native freshwater fish assemblages in Japanese lakes
Shin-ichiro Matsuzaki1
1Center for Environmental Biology and Ecosystem Studies, National Institute of Environmental
Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan
Most freshwaters, especially lake, have been altered in multiple ways through human activities. Freshwater fish is one of the most threatened groups. Recent assessments for the IUCN Red List (2010) indicate significantly higher numbers of threatened freshwater fish (37%) than other freshwater groups. In Japan, the number of endangered freshwater fish species is also increasing (36%).In light of the current biodiversity crisis, assessing macroecological pattern, at large spatial/temporal scale or for large number of species, is important to improve broad-scale conservation plans.
Although macroecological studies have traditionally focused on taxonomic diversity patterns, biodiversity includes multiple components, beyond species richness. More recently, ecological studies have focused more attention on the implications of biodiversity decline and ecosystem functioning, focusing on functional diversity (FD), which is the value and range of functional traits of the organisms present in a community.
Here, my aim was to quantitatively evaluate temporal changes in both taxonomic and functional diversity of native strictly freshwater fish assemblages (except translocated species) in Japanese lakes. I collected fish fauna data from 37 lakes and their inflowing rivers, and assessed change in species richness between historical (before 1999) and present-day (after 2000) time periods. I also calculated FD based on 16 traits related to resource use and life history.
My preliminary analysis showed that taxonomic diversity in remarkably declined on average 26.1%. However, considering the fish species remaining in the inflowing rivers, mean rate of decline was 20.3%. FDs significantly also declined on average 23.3%, but 17.3% with consideration of the fish species remaining in the inflowing rivers. Importantly, there was a significant positive linear relationship between changes in taxonomic diversity and FD. This indicates low functional redundancy in Japanese freshwater fish assemblages. My findings suggest that extinction of several native fish species may cause a dramatic change in FD.
Historical and geographical patterns of benthic macro-invertebrate biodiversity in the ancient Lake Biwa, Japan
J. Shibata1, Z. Karube2, Y. Sakai1, T. Takeyama3, I. Tayasu1, Y. Satoh4, S. Yachi1, S.
Nakano1, and N. Okuda1
1 Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Hirano 2-509-3, Otsu, Shiga 520-2113, Japan 2 National Institute for Environmental Studies, Onogawa 16-2, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan 3 Laboratory of Animal Sociology, Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of
Science, Osaka City University, Sugimoto 3-3-138, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka 558-8585, Japan
4 Lake Biwa Environmental Research Institute, Yanagasaki 5-34, Otsu, Shiga 520-0022 Japan
While freshwater ecosystems provide ecosystem services essential to human well-being, such as provisioning of water and fishery resources, they are the most vulnerable to human disturbances and have been concerned about their biodiversity loss. We focus on the ancient Lake Biwa because it has been exposed to various severe anthropogenic environmental changes during the last half century though its high biodiversity and endemism. Various past environmental and biota data of the Lake Biwa are recorded during the period of progressing ecosystem deterioration. We can trace back changes in biodiversity and identify human drivers and environmental pressures for the biodiversity loss. This knowledge would provide many insights for conservation of biodiversity not only for the Lake Biwa but also for Asian lake ecosystems. In this study, we focus on a littoral benthic macro-invertebrate fauna because its habitats, located in the interface between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, are the most vulnerable to human activities. The archival data revealed that there was a significant trend for the littoral zoobenthos diversity to steadily decrease as time elapsed, especially in shallower area and that the temporal pattern of abundance was quite different among taxa. We found that community structure of the littoral benthic macro-invertebrate was largely affected by environmental factors associated with problems occurred in the Lake Biwa: e.g. eutrophication, warming and massive submerged macrophyte stand. In this talk, we will also introduce other current outcomes and future perspectives for establishing plan of conservation for the biodiversity of lake ecosystems.
Assessment of biodiversity in irrigation ponds as refugia for aquatic organisms
Noriko Takamura1, Toshikazu Kizuka1, Yuji Sakuno2, Shinya Ishida1, Taku Kadoya1, and Munemitsu Akasaka1
1National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan 2Hiroshima Univ., Higashi-Hiroshima, Japan
Japan has about 200,000 irrigation ponds, most of which were constructed in the 17th to 19th centuries. Most aquatic organisms that inhabit irrigation ponds are common to other wetland ecosystems, such as wetlands that are adjacent to lakes, river floodplains, and paddy fields, because ponds experience both flooding and drying. By the year 2000, however, 61.1% of the wetlands that were present from 1870 to 1920 had been lost to anthropogenic disturbances in Japan. Irrigation ponds had played an important role as refuges for a variety of aquatic plants and animals that inhabit floodplains, but the number of irrigation ponds decreased to less than two-thirds in the latter half of the 20th century. Pond loss has been caused by urbanization and a decline in rice agriculture. In the remaining ponds, the increased use of concrete and steel, eutrophication, and invasions by alien species have caused biodiversity loss (Takamura 2012). Little data are available regarding aquatic organisms in irrigation ponds. Therefore, we surveyed aquatic organisms and their environments in 99 ponds in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, over the last 10 years. Using data from 64 ponds in 2006 and 2007, we determined that the state of biodiversity in this region could be expressed by three main stressors: chlorophyll a
concentration, percent of concrete dike relative to pond boundary length (or % urbanization of the peripheral area of the pond), and abundance of bluegill sunfish in the pond (Kadoya et al. 2011).
To expand this result to assess approximately 6,000 ponds in this region, we are studying how chlorophyll a concentrations can be estimated from satellite pictures (AVNIR-2) and how the abundance of bluegill sunfish in each pond can be estimated on a large scale. The presence of bluegill was well explained statistically (CART) by the visibility of a pond from peripheral roads and the connectivity of a pond to upper reservoirs that have already been invaded by bluegill.
References
Kadoya,T, Akasaka,M., Aoki,T. and Takamura,N.(2011): A proposal of framework to obtain an integrated biodiversity indicator for agricultural ponds incorporating the simultaneous effects of multiple pressures. Ecological Indicators 11:5 1396-1402.
Takamura N. (2012): Status of biodiversity loss in lakes and ponds in Japan. The Biodiversity Observation Network in the Asia-Pacific region: Towards further development of monitoring. (eds S.Nakano, T.Yahara and T.Nakashizuka), Springer, Tokyo.pp.133-148.
Biodiversity and conservation of mire ecosystems in Hokkaido, Japan
H. Fujita1, M. Takada2, H. Kobayashi1, E. Niimi3, and H. Kura1
1 Botanic Garden Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Kita3 Nishi8,
Chuo-ku, Sapporo, 060-0003, Japan
2Faculty of Humanity and Environment, Hosei University, Fujimi2-17-1, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
102-8160, Japan
3School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Kita9 Nishi9, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan
Hokkaido is the northernmost island among Japan’s four main islands, situated between the northern limit of the cool temperate zone and the southern limit of the boreal zone. Its climate facilitates the formation of various types of wetlands, majority of which are peat-forming mires. Most of these wetlands were found in their natural state until the early 20th century. However, since then, drainage and subsequent conversion mainly to agricultural land have destroyed more than 70% of this area. In 1996, there were a total of 150 wetlands greater than 1 ha, totaling an area of 59,881 ha. According to the Geographical Survey Institute, they covered 86% of the remaining wetlands in Japan. In 1928, when many mires were undeveloped, they spanned a total area of 200,642 ha. Mire areas were mainly lost between the 1950s and 1970s, when post-war development promoted agricultural and large-scale reclamation projects. Many wetland areas have been designated as national or prefectural parks. However, the assignment of the protected area status alone does not reduce external pressures on the wetlands. Currently, 90.7% of mountain mires are public land, whereas 81.3% of lowland mires are held privately or in mixed ownership. This ownership condition affects the possibility to ensure complete protection of mire complexes, especially in the lowlands. To ensure effective conservation of mire ecosystems, it is necessary to include the catchment area in the planning of protected areas. According to the Hokkaido mire database on vascular plants (under construction), 1024 plant species were recorded, among which 116 species are red data plants in Japan. Because most of them have wetland habitats, environmental degradation is likely to result in their extinction.
Conservation and protection plans for existing wetlands depend upon accurate scientific baseline data and full recognition of the factors influencing wetland loss and degradation.
The evaluation of river and floodplain ecosystems based upon irreplaceability, rarity and diversity of aquatic species in Japan, and effects of river regulation
and global warming on indicator species.
F.Nakamura1, T. Akasaka1, M, Inoue2, Y, Kawaguchi3, H. Mitsuhashi4, N. Onikura5, Y, Miyake6, I. Katano7, T. Mori8, and H. Ichiyanagi9
1 Forest Ecosystem Management Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, 060-8589, Japan 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ehime University, 790-8577, Japan
3 Laboratory of Ecosystem Management, Division of Ecosystem Design, Institute of Technology and Science, The
University of Tokushima, 880-8506, Japan
4 The Museum of Nature and Human Activities Hyogo, 669-1546,Japan 5 Fishery Research Laboratory, Kyushu University, 811-3304
6 Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ehime University, 790-8577, Japan 7 School of Human Science and Environment,University of Hyogo, 670-0092, Japan
8 Aqua Restoration Research Center Kawashima Kasada-machi Kakamigahara-City Gifu Prefecture, 501-6021,
Japan
9 Water Resources Environment Technology Center, Tokyo, Japan.
We conducted complimentary analysis for fish fauna covering the entire Japanese archipelago as well as the specific regions such as Hokkaido and Kyushu. The results were compared with the protected areas (national parks and other reserves) to see the gaps between them. Although important areas found by the complimentary analysis in Hokkaido were relatively covered by the current reserves, those in Kyushu were not protected. There is a bias of data availability in Kyushu, and therefore we should fill the gaps of database using niche models for various species before complimentary analysis. Sediment control dams and water reservoir constructions and gravel mining are causing progressive sediment starvation in Japanese rivers, which results in rapid degradation of the riverbeds followed by forest expansion. Benthic invertebrates and fish cannot survive there, and migrating fish lose their spawning habitat. Bar-braided channels are changed to single-thread channels, and thereby habitats for overwintering juvenile fish will disappear. The bars and floodplains are covered by trees, because flood disturbances are greatly reduced by dams. The forest expansion has indirect impacts on material flows and organisms in the rivers and floodplains. It may reduce primary production and water temperature, and increase allochthonous input, which affect invertebrates and fish. Not only aquatic organisms, terrestrial animals, such as birds and mammals, also suffer from various impacts of forest expansion. The maximum stream temperature in summer may rise associated with dam construction and global warming. We focused on whitespotted char and Dolly varden as an indicator species, and build a niche model to predict shrinkage of their distribution by those impacts.
Satellite remote sensing of inland waters and their watersheds by monitoring aquatic macrophytes, cyanobacterial bloom and impervious surfaces
Y. Oyama1, F. Yang1, B. Matsushita1, and T. Fukushima1
1Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba,
Ibaraki 305-8567, Japan
Aquatic flora and fauna have been changed by the environmental deterioration of lakes and reservoirs along with the deforestation and urbanization of the watersheds. Monitoring and evaluation of the environmental changes are the important task for maintaining aquatic biodiversity in inland waters. Remote sensing provides the most feasible approach to detect the environmental changes at regional, continental or global scales. In this presentation we focus on the three environmental factors; aquatic macrophyte, cyanobacterial bloom and impervious surface area (ISA), which are directly or indirectly related with the aquatic biodiversity.
The abundance and diversity of aquatic macrophytes are closely related to the ecological state and stability of the shallow inland waters. We tested the performance of vegetation indices (VIs), which have been used to estimate green biomass and leaf area index (LAI) in terrestrial areas, in order to detect the aquatic macrophytes in inland waters using Landsat data. The results showed that the NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index) could successfully distinguish macrophyte areas from water.
The occurrence of cyanobacterial bloom resulting from eutrophication is the primary problem occurred in most water area in East Asia. It influences not only lake ecosystem but human activity such as toxicity, strong odor and so on. Several local governments in Japan have evaluated the degree of cyanobacterial bloom using a simple method, namely the apparent cyanobacterial bloom index (ACB index). We tested the applicability of ACB index to satellite remote sensing based on field measurements.
The impervious surfaces are anthropogenic features which water cannot infiltrate into the soil, and can be used as an indicator of the deterioration of the drainage functions such as permeability. We introduce a novel method to estimate ISA using MODIS data (Yang et al., 2012). The basic idea of our method is to use the different temporal changes of NDVI in forests, crops and impervious surfaces, respectively, as the end-members instead of their spectral patterns.
Online database of Mekong fishes: a method to integrate and publicize a large amount of data
Yuichi Kano, and Yukihiro Shimatani
Department of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Fukuoka City, Japan
Totally more than 32,000 specimens and 550 species of freshwater fishes have been collected by six institutes of four countries (Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) around Mekong and Chao-Phraya Rivers, which is supported by Nagao Natural Environment Foundation since 2007 (NEF Project). The data is still now increasing. However, the data are independently kept at each institute in different formats and has not been integrated yet. The data should be finally integrated and arranged for publication. For the purposes, an online cloud database system (Mekong+, beta version) was programmed by Y. Kano. By accumulating the independent data into Mekong+, the data will be integrated and automatically worldwide publicized on the internet. Scheme and policy of Mekong+ are 1) anyone can access to look the database through the internet, 2) anyone (mostly scientists) can freely use the database for meta analyses, and 3) anyone (mostly scientists) can use the database as a specimen databank (voucher for scientific paper like DNA databank; specimen data are not restricted to NEF Project), although we need a discussion and agreement about these.
