Community characteristics of aquatic organisms and management implications after construction of Shihutang Dam in the Gangjiang River, China

ABSTRACTLiu X, Hu X, Ao X, Wu X, Ouyang S. 2017. Community characteristics of aquatic organisms and management implications after construction of Shihutang Dam in the Gangjiang River, China. Lake Reserv Manage. 34:42–57.The Ganjiang River is the largest river in Jiangxi Province, China, and plays a significant role in maintaining and replenishing the aquatic biodiversity for Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River. Understanding the effects of dam construction on aquatic biodiversity is critical because of the increasing number of dams and their adverse environmental impacts on the Ganjiang River. In this study, community structure of aquatic organisms and physicochemical parameters in the Shihutang Dam were investigated during March, July, and December 2015. We found that species number, density, and biomass of phytoplankton upstream of the dam were greater than downstream of the dam. Moreover, analysis of aquatic biodiversity showed that phytoplankton, zooplankton, and macrozoobenthos upstream of the dam were...