THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ICHTHYOFAUNA OF THE WATER BODIES OF THE YAMALO-NENETS AUTONOMOUS OKRUG OF THE TYUMEN REGION: REVIEW

The article presents an overview of the published materials for a long period concerning the characteristics of the ichthyofauna and the species composition of the water bodies of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Tyumen Region at the present stage. The characteristic of the natural and climatic conditions of the region is given, its high uniqueness as a territory rich in valuable and rare fish resources is shown. The importance of protecting aquatic biological resources from anthropogenic pollution and influence.

Recommendations on the state of the sturgeon population of the irtysh river and its optimal extraction from the natural environment for reproduction

The results of studying the current state of the Siberian sturgeon population, clarifying the range of its distribution, the number and size-age groups in various sections of the Irtysh River are presented. Preliminary recommendations are given on the possibility of obtaining a small part of the population for the purpose of artificial reproduction. Ecological monitoring was carried out by the route-expedition method, by examining the Yertis River and the estuary areas of large flowing tributaries and reservoirs for the presence and distribution area of rare fish species. The work uses materials of research reports on the program 037 "State accounting and cadastre of fish resources" for 2004-14, data from the archives of Kazniirh LLP.When conducting research, we were guided by the provisions of Normative and methodological documentation. The research is funded by the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant no. BR10264205)

Integrating Environmental DNA Results With Diverse Data Sets to Improve Biosurveillance of River Health

Autonomous, robotic environmental (e)DNA samplers now make it possible for biological observations to match the scale and quality of abiotic measurements collected by automated sensor networks. Merging these automated data streams may allow for improved insight into biotic responses to environmental change and stressors. Here, we merged eDNA data collected by robotic samplers installed at three U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgages with gridded daily weather data, and daily water quality and quantity data into a cloud-hosted database. The eDNA targets were a rare fish parasite and a more common salmonid fish. We then used computationally expedient Bayesian hierarchical occupancy models to evaluate associations between abiotic conditions and eDNA detections and to simulate how uncertainty in result interpretation changes with the frequency of autonomous robotic eDNA sample collection. We developed scripts to automate data merging, cleaning and analysis steps into a chained-step, workflow. We found that inclusion of abiotic covariates only provided improved insight for the more common salmonid fish since its DNA was more frequently detected. Rare fish parasite DNA was infrequently detected, which caused occupancy parameter estimates and covariate associations to have high uncertainty. Our simulations found that collecting samples at least once per day resulted in more detections and less parameter uncertainty than less frequent sampling. Our occupancy and simulation results together demonstrate the advantages of robotic eDNA samplers and how these samples can be combined with easy to acquire, publicly available data to foster real-time biosurveillance and forecasting.

Streams fish from Upper Araguaia and Middle Rio da Mortes basin, Brazil: generating subsidies for preservation and conservation of this critical natural resource

The Araguaia River basin has the highest fish biodiversity within the Cerrado biome (Brazilian savannah), with many endemic and threatened species by human activities. Despite growing efforts to catalog Neotropical freshwater fish biodiversity, many regions are still undersampled. Our objective is to complement the information about stream fish in two hydrographic basins in the Cerrado. We sampled 72 streams with 50 m stretch in the Upper Araguaia (n = 32) and Middle Rio das Mortes (n = 40) basins. We collected 14,887 individuals distributed in 137 species, 81 genera, 30 families, and six orders. Characidae, Loricariidae, and Cichlidae were the families richer in species. We found a high diversity of rare fish species in the streams sampled, ca. 71.5% of the species had at least five individuals collected, and 18 species had only one collected specimen. The most frequent species were Astyanax cf. goyacensis, Knodus cf. breviceps, and Characidium cf. zebra. Both basins shared around 43% of the species. We caught 76 species in Upper Araguaia and 120 species in Middle Rio das Mortes. Seventeen exclusive fish species occurred in Upper Araguaia, whereas 61 were found in the Middle Rio das Mortes basin. Our analysis showed lower diversity of fish in Upper Araguaia than in the Middle Rio das Mortes basin. Considering the exclusive fish species of both basins, the human threats in those regions, and the few existent protected areas, we need a better look at the aquatic biodiversity conservation of this ecosystem.

New findings of light dusky rockfish Sebastes variabilis (Sebastidae) at the eastern coast of Kamchatka

Light dusky rockfish Sebastes variabilis is a rare fish species in the waters at East Kamchatka, rarely recorded in trawl catches. They aggregate in the areas with complicated bottom topography and active water dynamics with the depth from 118 to 316 m. Their maximum catches are recorded off Capes Gowen, Olyutorsky, and Kronotsky. The light dusky rockfish body length varies from 34 to 50 cm, and body weight — from 0.53 to 1.78 kg. Some issues related to the migration routes of this species to the shores of Kamchatka are discussed.

ON NEW FINDING OF MIRROR DORY ZENOPSIS NEBULOSA IN PETER THE GREAT BAY (JAPAN SEA)

New finding of rare fish species mirror dory Zenopsis nebulosa in Peter the Great Bay (Japan Sea) is described.

The ecology and distribution of percoid fish Dario neela from Wayanad in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India

Dario neela, a newly described badid fish endemic to the Western Ghats is little known to science. Distribution and ecology of this species is not well documented. In this paper, we provide information on new records of this rare fish from Wayanad region of the Western Ghats and discuss its distribution, ecology and conservation.