The Fish Fauna of the Inland Waters of the Lower Kabylie
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Studia Universitatis “Vasile Goldiş”, Seria Ştiinţele Vieţii Vol. 30, issue 2, 2020, pp. 76 - 87 © 2020 Vasile Goldis University Press (www.studiauniversitatis.ro) THE FISH FAUNA OF THE INLAND WATERS OF THE LOWER KABYLIE (BEJAIA, NORTHERN ALGERIA): DIVERSITY AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION Djamel AMALOU1*, Riadh MOULAÏ1 1Laboratoire de Zoologie Appliquée et d’Ecophysiologie Animale,Faculté des Sciences de la Nature et de la Vie, Université de Bejaia, 06000 Bejaia, Algérie. Abstract: The study of species composition of the fish fauna of inland waters in the region of the lower Kabylie (Bejaia, northern Algeria), has permitted us to make out an inventory of 19 fishes species belonging to 15 genera and 9 families. The Mugilidae and the Cyprinidae are the most represented with 5 species each. Among the fish fauna, 16 are indigenous and 3 are introduced. With its 19 species, the region of the lower Kabylie is home to nearly 40 % of the Algerian inland waters fish fauna estimated at 48 species and 15 families. The spatial distribution of fish communities in different water courses has shown that it is the Soummam River which has the highest species richness with 16 species of which 15 species are inventoried only at its mouth. This study has allowed us to locate river blenny Salaria fluviatilis only in the eastern part of the lower Kabylie region in the Djemaa River, Aguerioune River and its tributaries. While able of the calle Pseudophoxinus callensis is confined only at the Soummam River and its major tributaries namely: Boussellam, Oued Ghir and Sahel. In addition, this distribution also shows the presence in all the rivers of the European eel Anguilla anguilla and the barbel Barbus callensis with an occurrence frequency of 100 % for each species. Key words: Inventory, fish species, river, Specific richness. Lower Kabylie. INTRODUCTION old and have focused on systematic, e.g., Cuvier and In recent years, the fish fauna of inland aquatic Valenciennes (1842), Playfair and Letourneux (1871), ecosystems has attracted the interest of scientists and Boulenger (1911) and Cauvet (1913, 1915). naturalists in some African countries (Lalèyè et al., Since the publication of the monograph of Pellegrin 2004). Indeed, many studies have been undertaken in (1921) on the North African freshwater fish fauna, little this direction, and the current state of knowledge on the work has been published such those of Kraiem (1983, fish of certain regions is relatively advanced (Wamuini 1991) in Tunisia and Azeroual et al. (2000) in et al., 2010). This is particularly the case in West Morocco. In Algeria, we can mention the work of Africa (Paugy et al., 2003a, 2003b), in lower Guinea Dieuzeide (1927.1932) ; Dieuzeide and Champagne (Stiassny et al., 2007a, 2007b), and in South Africa (1950); Dieuzeide and Roland (1951), Bouton (1957); (Skelton, 2004). Almaça (1969, 1970, 1990); Dumont (1981); Arab For the region of North Africa in general and the (1989); Le Berre (1989); Bouhaddad (1993); Maghreb in particular, the work of Pellegrin (1921) is Bouhaddad and Asselah (1998); Doadrio (1994); still an important reference, and other work on the Doadrio et al. (1998) on the barbels; Zouakh et al. systematic and phylogeny of various groups of fishes, (2004) on the fishes of the Hoggar and Tassili; Chaoui including Cyprinidae have been published since then, et al. (2006) on the fishes of the lagoon of El Mellah; but a synthesis of this work is needed (Doadrio, 1994). Bacha and Amara (2007) on the fish fauna of the In general, the Maghreb has a very poor freshwater fish Soummam River; Tandjir and Djebar (2010) on the fauna, having little affinity with tropical fauna and fish fauna of Kébir River; Kara (2011), and finally composed mainly of Cyprinidae (Roberts, 1975; Chaibi et al. (2012) on the exotic fish fauna of eastern Doadrio, 1994; Lévêque, 1997; Lévêque et al., 2008). Algeria. However, this region plays a very important role in the In the region of the lower Kabylie, except Bacha speciation and dispersal of freshwater fishes (Doadrio, and Amara (2007) who conducted an inventory of the 1994). In addition, it has received many introduced fish fauna of the Soummam River and its tributaries, species (Kara, 2011). and Djoudad-Kadji et al. (2012) who worked on the In North Africa, we distinguish three barbel reproduction in Soummam River, no study biogeographical zones: The Atlantic area in the north- dealing with freshwater fish of the entire region of the west, characterized by the presence of Cyprinidae such lower Kabylie is worth mentioning. This study updates Labeobarbus, Varicorhinus and Cobitidae; the and completes data on the fish fauna of the region. The Mediterranean area characterized by the Cyprinidae study also establishes a fish map that will serve for Barbus and Pseudophoxinus and finally the tropical possible interventions of piscicultural laying out in the zone to the east, and including the Sahara, where region, and assess the specific richness in different Cichlidae and Clariidae are encountered (Pellegrin, streams of the region from the perspectives of 1921; Lévêque and Paugy, 2006). conservation, laying out and bio-surveillance. Studies on the fish fauna of the inland waters of north Africa in general and Algeria in particular are not MATERIAL AND METHODS common, are often scattered and incomplete, most are Study area Correspondence: Amalou Djamel, e-mails: [email protected]. Amalou D., Moulai R. The present study was carried out in the region of streams; the main ones are: Aguerioune; Zitouna; the lower Kabylie best known as little Kabylie. It Djemaa; Amacine; Boussellam; Sahel; Oued Dass; belongs to the department of Bejaia. It is a coastal Acif El Hammam and the Soummam (Fig.1). The latter region that extends over an area of some 3261 km2 is one of the largest rivers in Algeria; it is as a collector which is among the largest coastal regions of central of several other small rivers. This river is the result of eastern Algeria between the big massifs of Djurdjura, the junction in the valley of Akbou of two equally the Bibans and the Babor. It is located between the important rivers which are: Boussellam River from the latitudes 36 ° 15, and 36° 55, north and the longitudes department of Setif and Sahel River from the 4° 20, and 5 ° 30, east. It opens onto the Mediterranean department of Bouira. It runs through the entire valley Sea on a coastline of over 100 kms. It is bounded on of the Soummam on about 90 kms, draining a the east by the department of Jijel, on the west by the watershed of some 9125 km2 and opens in the departments of Tizi-Ouzou and Bouira, on the south by Mediterranean Sea at the city of Bejaia (Bennabi 1985; the departments Sétif and Bordj Bouareridj, on the Benhamiche, 1997). Note that the Soummam River is north by the Mediterranean Sea (Anonyme, 1980). classified as a wetland of international importance The region of the lower kabylie has a dense under the Ramsar convention (Ramsar, 2012). hydrographic network consisting of several rivers and Fig. 1. Map of Location, hydrographic network and sampling stations in lower Kabylie. Sampling protocol Sampling was conducted at 35 stations in 12 rivers During the period from April 2010 to June 2013, which are: Aguerioune, Boulezzazen, Zitouna, Djemaa, we surveyed almost all the watercourses including Soummam, Oued Ghir, Amacin , Boussellam, Sahel, small streams in the region of the lower Kabylie. Oued Dass, Acif El Hammam (Figure1 and Table 1). Table 1 Stations sampling of fish in different rivers and Water courses of lower Kabylie Water courses (river) Sampling stations Aguerioune Mouth of Aguerioune , Tizi el oued, Ait Annane, Gorges of Kherrata Boulezazzen Ighzer Zentouth , Ighzer Rha ,Tharemante Zitouna Tivizelt, Ighil Yesli Djemaa Ait Abbas, Sefah , Boukhlifa, Bakaro Soummam Mouth of soummam , Oumllil , Timezrit, Ighzer Amokrane , Akbou Oued Ghir Boubecha, Larbaa Studia Universitatis “Vasile Goldiş”, Seria Ştiinţele Vieţii Vol. 30, issue 2, 2020, pp. 76 - 87 77 © 2020 Vasile Goldis University Press (www.studiauniversitatis.ro) The fish fauna of the inland waters of The Lower Kabylie (Bejaia, Northern Algeria) Diversity and spatial distribution Amaçine Bridge of Feraoun , Red bridge Boussellam Aguemoune Lemleh, Ait Mouhli, Bouhamza, Boumessaoud Sahel Bridge of Ahnif , Boudjellil, Tazmalt Saket Mouth of saket, Bridge of saket Oued Dass Mouth of oued dass, Ighzer Lehbal Acif el hammam Mouth of Sidi Khlifa, Hriz The choice of the stations is dictated primarily by nets and agitating the water while hitting the surface the conditions of accessibility and human disturbance; and the deep water in order to herd fish into the net. At indeed, given the greater sensitivity of most fish’s the same time, we launched the hawk in different species, we opted for stations with relatively easy places of the isolated portion. This technique is access, and are far from towns and houses, and this for practiced in times of low waters. minimizing the maximum disturbances that may arise In addition to these different fishing devices from human activities. The fishes sampling took place mentioned, we have exploited and regularly utilized almost throughout the year in all the stations, except specimens of fish caught by artisanal fishermen and mouths where fishing took place only in summer due to residents. Once captured by the different fishing the difficulties encountered in winter (volume, current techniques used, the fish are identified on site then and turbidity). In order to get a fairly comprehensive released; on the contrary, the dead individuals are ichthyological inventory we used different techniques brought back to the laboratory for confirmation of and different fishing devices, depending on the water identification then preserved and collectioned in depth and habitat types. Among this panoply of devices formalin at 10%.