A study on abundance and biodiversity of fishes in Sirvan River in Kurdistan

The diversity of fish in Sirvan basin was studied in spring and summer of 2011. Twelve stations were selected on the basis of similarity, the confluence of tributaries and human intervention. Some 1454 fish specimens were collected and analyzed among which a total of 17 species belonging to four families Cyprinidae, Salmonidae, Nemacheilidae and Gobiidae were identified. Species richness was not significantly different in the seasons (P> 0.05), but there were significant differences between the seasons species diversity and species diversity in different stations in any season (P <0.05). About 98% of the specimens were in the family Cyprinidae. The lowest frequencies was in Salmonidae (0.07%). About 97% of the species were native. The Mastacembelidae species, Mastacembelus mastacembelus, was observed in Palangan station. The most frequent species was Alburnus mossulensis and the less frequent ones were Carassius auratus, Lucius pectoralis and Oncorhynchus mykiss. In this study, six exotic species, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Carassius auratus, Rhinogobius cf. similis, Hemiculter leucisculus, Pseudorasbora parva and Oncorhynchus mykiss were captured. The highest diversity index (2.48), species richness (1.72) and dominance (0.79) were observed in summer.