Envirommental Impacts of Hydropower Development on Sustainable Fisheries of the Yangtze River and Potential Mitigation Options
In China, the Yangtze River basin has the highest number of new large dams planned or under construction (Schelle et al. , 2005). These provide much needed pollution free energy to support a rapidly developing economy. China also maintains the worlds largest freshwater aquaculture industry and inland capture fisheries ( over one-quarter of global catch) , the majority of which is sourced from the Yangtze River, which maintains a total of at least 370 fish species. Despite environmental and economic benefits of hydropower development throughout China, the negative impacts on inland capture fisheries and aquaculture ( Kura et al. , 2004) and biodiversity are significant. Dams block or delay fish movements; damage or kill a proportion of those that pass through turbines; alter or flood habitat; change environmental flow regimes; shift the equilibrium of predator; prey interactions; and interrupt ecological processes described by the River Continuum (Vannote et al. , 1980) and Flood Pulse (Junk et al. , 1989) Concepts. Several of the cascading hydropower stations on the main Yangtze River and its tributaries create difference in water level in excess of 100m. The majority do not provide fish passage facilities. Partly as a result, the annual catch has been reduced to 100,000 tons, less than one-quarter of that caught in 1954, when the take reached approximately 427,000 tons (Chen et al. , 2004). The need to mitigate for the negative environmental impacts that endanger fish stocks is well recognized, but developing appropriate solutions are complex. This may only be partially achieved through the provision of fish passage facilities at dams. Other strategies such as mitigation hatcheries and trap-and-transport systems might also be needed. Unfortunately, current precedents tend to be salmonid focused and thus prior experience is biased to Northern temperature regions. This is problematic when applied to Chinese fish species. This paper reviews the importance of the Yangtze river as a hydropower and fisheries resources and describes declines in fish populations. The challenges and opportunities of maintaining sustainable fisheries resources and biodiversity by mitigating for the impacts of hydropower development of the Yangtze River are explored.
Dams, turbines fish lifts population decline fish passage
Paul Kemp Lynda Eakins Han Deju Chang Jianbo Shi Xuetao
International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, Univers The Institute of Hydroecology, Ministry of Water Resources,578 Xiongchu Avenue,Wuhan, Hubei, China China Three Gorges University,No.8 University Avenue, Yichang 443002, Hubei Province,China
国际会议
The Fourth Yangtze Forum(第四届长江论坛)
南京
英文
161-173
2011-04-18（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）