Impacts of fishing by dewatering on fish assemblages of tropical floodplain wetlands A matter of frequency and context》.pdf

Biological Conservation 144 (2011) 633–640 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biological Conservation journal homepage: /locate/biocon Impacts of fishing by dewatering on fish assemblages of tropical floodplain wetlands: A matter of frequency and context Sarah M. Martin a,c,⇑, Kai Lorenzen a,b, Robert I. Arthur a,c, Phaisane Kaisone d,e, Kanthavong Souvannalangsy d a Division of Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, UK b School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32653, USA c MRAG Ltd., 18 Queen Street, London W1J 5PN, UK d Livestock and Fisheries Section of Savannakhet Province, Savannakhet, Lao Democratic People’s Republic e Asian Institute of Technology, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Tropical floodplain wetlands and the fish communities they support are subject to great pressure from Received 26 March 2010 human demands for water and aquatic living resources. In densely populated agricultural areas where Received in revised form 18 October 2010 such pressures are greatest, floodplain wetlands may be dewatered for the dual purpose of crop irrigation Accepted 2 November 2010 and fish harvesting. Viewed as highly destructive to fish communities, the practice is widely discouraged Available online 8 December 2010 but remains common. We investigated the impacts of dewatering on fish abundance and assemblage