Assessment of ecological integrity of the Zarineh River using fish-based indices: A case study on the impact of Shahin-Dezh city (West Azarbaijan Province)

This study investigated the anthropological impacts on the Integrity Biological Index (IBI) of the Zarineh River using fish ecological indexes including integrity scores, species richness, abundance and etc. For this reason, seven stations about 30 km along the river before, adjust and after the city of Shahin-Dezh were selected. In total 404 fish specimen of eleven species were captured. Then, the ecological indexes including simpson, margalof, shanon, richness and IBI scores were calculated for each station using Biodiversity pro software. The results revealed that distribution, abundance and composition of the ichthyofauna of the Zarineh River can be applied to assess of the anthropological impacts on IBI of this river. The observations also showed that higher biodiversity indexes and abundance can not be related to higher water quality. Examination of the results of the ecological integrity index in the studied stations showed that the IBI value in station 4 is higher compared to the others. In terms of IBI index, after station 4, there were stations 2 and 7, respectively. These findings were consistent with the results obtained from biodiversity indices. The study of species diversity in stations 4, 2 and 7 showed that these stations are similar in terms of ecological integrity index. This study showed that among the studied stations, station 5 had the lowest value of IBI. Considering that Station 5 was located near Shahin-Dezh city, it can be acknowledged that the IBI value of this station has been more affected by human activities including input of sewage.