Species diversity and abundance of fish in the Shadegan Wetland, Khuzestan Province, Iran

The study of diversity and abundance of fish species in the study of aquatic ecosystems is of particular importance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the abundance and changes of heterogeneity and uniformity indices of fish species in the Shadegan International Wetland in different seasons from October 2015 to September 2016. In this study, a total of 3735 fish from 16 species and 6 families were caught from five stations. Among the families, the highest abundance belonged to the family of carp (Cyprinidae) and then the cichlids (Cichlidae), with 48% and 42%, respectively, and among the fish species, Coptodon zillii, Carasobarbus luteus and Mesopotamichthys sharpeyi with a large difference of relative abundance, 40.91, 10.25, and 12 respectively, had the highest presence abundance. The highest heterogeneity index of Shannon-Wiener (1.85) and the species richness of Margalef (2.32) were in the Sarrakhieh station and the highest uniformity of Hill was in the Hadbeh station (0.85). The study of biodiversity indices in the different seasons also showed that the highest species diversity of Shannon-Wiener (2.01) was obtained in spring and the results of the T-test revealed that these indices were significantly higher in spring than other seasons (P<0.05). In short, the results of this research showed that it seems that the best way to restore the wetland is its integrated management, taking into account the water needs of the wetland, controlling non-native species and managing fishing.