Study of Habitat suitability index of Kura Barbel (Barbus Cyri Filippi, 1865) in Taleghan River (Sefidrud River basin: Alborz Province)

Presence, absence and abundance of fish species in a river ecosystem are affected by various environmental factors. In addition, fishes prefer a specific range of ecosystem habitat factor changes. This study was conducted to assess the habitat suitability indices of Kura Barbel (Barbus ciry) in Taleghan River. For this purpose, the abundance and nine environmental parameters, including depth (cm), river width (m), slope (degree), water velocity (m/s), the average diameter of bedrock, number of stone larger than 25 cm in each quadrat,, index of substrate, percentage of riparian vegetation and percentage of algal cover in 33 stations from downstream to upstream were examined. The results showed that the most suitable habitat parameters for Kura Barbel in Taleghan River are regions with: depth in range of 50-60 cm, river width ranged 0-5 m, water velocity in a range of 0.3-0.6 m/s, slope in range of 1.5-2 degree, the number of large stones (> 25 cm) fewer than 4, the average diameter of bedrock in range of 35-20 cm, index of substrate in range of 5.5-7, algal cover with less than 2% and with riparian forest vegetation. The index of substrate stone had the highest and width river lowest, suitability indices. Habitat suitability index showed that the Taleghan Riveris is an excellent habitat for Kura Barbel.