Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Acta Ecologica Sinica

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chnaes

Species composition, abundance and diversity of Ichthyofauna of

Ikere-Gorge, Oyo State, Nigeria
S.O. Ajagbe a, *, D.O. Odulate b, Y. Akegbejo-Samsons b, A.S. Kehinde a, R.O. Ajagbe c, M.
T. Ojubolamo a
a
Department of Wildlife and Ecotourism, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, P.M.B. 5054, Jericho, Ibadan, Nigeria
b
Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, P.M.B. 2240, Abeokuta, Nigeria
c
Department of Forest Economics and Extension, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, P.M.B. 5054, Jericho, Ibadan, Nigeria

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Anthropogenic activities in inland water can cause species loss and displacement. Therefore, there is a need to
Rare species regularly examine species composition, abundance and diversity of freshwater ecosystem as a means to monitor
Freshwater its health. Ichthyofauna of Ikere-gorge, Iseyin, Oyo State was studied for a period of 24 month, from January
Family
2017 to December 2018. Ikere-gorge was divided into four strata, each comprises three fishing villages. One
Fish catches
village in each stratum was randomly selected as sampling site. The catches were sorted into taxonomic groups
Sarotherodon galilaeus
Vulnerable (species and families) using standard fish identification keys. Forty-one fish species from 13 families were
Fisheries resources identified in which species richness varied among the sampling villages. Asamu had 34, Agatu had 30, Spillway
had 39 and Irawote had 29 species. The freshwater fish species of Nigeria is the richest in West Africa and more
than 15% of these fish species are found in Ikere-gorge. Mormyridae family was the most represented with 10
species. Cichlidae was the most abundant by catch and by weight. Sarotherodon galilaeus has the highest abun­
dance by catch and by weight. Gnathonemus brucii was identified as a vulnerable species. The result obtained
from this study show that conservation program should be urgently put in place to prevent some fish from
extinction. There should be introduction of closed season to allow for proper recruitment of fish population.
Likewise, minimum mesh size should be set to allow juvenile and immature fish to escape and allow them to
spawn at least once before being vulnerable to gear. There should regulation to set maximum number of fish­
ermen to be allowed to fish at a particular day, this is to reduce fishing pressure.

1. Introduction
Biodiversity is the innumerable forms of life with their various
distinguished characteristics, in their various changing environment.
When thinking about aquatic environments; marine, brackish or fresh­
water, fish is the most known, common and diverse organisms [1,2].
Fish composition, abundance and diversity show the richness and eco­
nomic importance of an aquatic ecosystem to national economy as they
provide food security and supply reliable animal protein to many people
[1,3]. Nigeria freshwater ecosystem is endowed with more than 268 fish
species from 35 families [4]. Exploitation of these fish from inland wa­
ters provides livelihood for a substantial population in Nigeria. This is
usually referred to as artisanal or small-scale fisheries characterised with
the use of manual or non-motorised fishing gears.
Ikere-gorge, like most inland water bodies in Nigeria, is open to
fishing with various form of fishing gears that have impacts on the
composition, abundance and diversity of fish population of the gorge.
This has caused fisheries resources of Ikere-gorge to be declining as in
other inland waters bodies in Nigeria [5]. Globally fish resources had
decreased dramatically and endemic species are facing threats [1]. The
depletion of fisheries resources can be viewed as either recruitment or
growth overfishing. Recruitment overfishing is the excessive exploita­
tion of parent or spawning stock to the extent that endangers fish
recruitment because there is not enough parent stock to produce
offspring. Growth overfishing is when too much small or immature fish
are exploited without allowing them to grow into maturity [3,6]. Fishing
activities at both growth and recruitment overfishing levels are not
sustainable; it alters fish composition, diversity and distribution.
Fisheries as a renewable resource must be sustainable. Sustainable
fisheries require fishing activities that do not cause significant reduction

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: stephenolua@gmail.com (S.O. Ajagbe).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chnaes.2021.07.002
Received 12 January 2020; Received in revised form 16 July 2020; Accepted 4 July 2021
1872-2032/© 2021 Ecological Society of China. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: S.O. Ajagbe, Acta Ecologica Sinica, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chnaes.2021.07.002
S.O. Ajagbe et al.
in abundance and diversity of fish population over time to ensure sus­
tainability of livelihood of those that depend on it. Fishing activities
have been identified as one of the factors causing reduction in fish di­
versity and abundance in Nigeria [5,7].This may also cause species loss,
displacement and extinction. Fisheries resources have to be continually
monitored and quantified through the study of fish composition, abun­
dance and diversity to ascertain that exploitation of fisheries resources is
within the sustainable limit. Changes in fish diversity can be assessed by
diversity indices. The most commonly used indices are Shannon-Wie­
ner's Index, Simpson's dominance index and Simpson's indices of di­
versity [1,5,8]. Therefore, this study aims to examine composition,
abundance and diversity of fish species in Ikere-gorge.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. The study site
Ikere-gorge is a 565 million cubic meters (mcm) multipurpose dam
located at Ikere village, about 28 km, North East of Iseyin in Oyo State.
Ikere-gorge is located between longitude 8◦ 10ˈ and 8◦ 20ˈN and latitude
3◦ 40ˈ and 3◦ 50ˈE (Fig. 1). Ikere-gorge took its source from Sepeteri
about 40 km to Ikere through Asamu and Alagbon. Ikere-gorge has Ogun
Fig. 1. Map of Ikere-gorge dam (showing some fishing villages), Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria.
2
Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (xxxx) xxx
River as its major tributary and River Amaka, River Oowe and River
Owu as its minor tributaries. Ikere gorge has twelve fishing villages. The
fishing villages accommodate different people with their culture from
different parts of Nigeria and neighbouring countries like Togo, Mali,
and Republic of Benin. The livelihood of these people majorly depends
on the Ikere-gorge. Four sampling sites were selected from Ikere-gorge
using stratified random selection method. The four selected fishing vil­
lages for the study are Asamu, Agatu, Spillway and Irawote fishing vil­
lages. The locations of sampling sites and other fishing villages were
documented using global positioning system. The selected sampling
sites were sampled for four days consecutively in the first week of every
month for a period of twenty-four months (January 2017 to December
2018).
2.2. Distribution, abundance and diversity of fish species in Ikere-gorge
Different fish species were sampled randomly and examined from
fishermen catch in each selected fishing village. Field assistants were
hired and trained to examine the content and sort fishermen landed
catch according to species. They recorded the weight and number of
sampled catches. All sizes and weights of landed fish catch were sampled
to eliminate bias [9]. The catches were sorted into taxonomic groups
S.O. Ajagbe et al. Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (xxxx) xxx

(species and families) using standard fish identification keys provided by
[4,10,11] keys. Each species of fish was weighed in batches with Salter
hanging balance to the nearest 1.0 g and counted individually for
abundance. Fish species that were few in number were counted indi­
vidually while those in large quantity were batch weighed [12]. The
method of percentage relative abundance as used by [12] was adopted
to categorise the fish species into five classes.
2.2.1. Diversity indices
The diversity indices used in this study and methods employed are as
follow:
i. Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index [13]
H = − Σ Pi ln Pi (1)
species or no heterogeneity between sites.Where: βP – the proportional
diversity.
γ – gamma diversity
α1 – Average of alpha diversity of all sampling sites
vii. Differentiation diversity (βD): It is obtained by using average [21]
similarity among pairs of sampling sites. Unadjusted [21,22]
similarity coefficient is given as:
Sørs = 2a ​ ​ / ​ [2a + b + c]
2a + b + c (Please kindly delete this. It is part of the equation above)
(8)

Where: 'a' is the number of species present in both sites; 'b' is the number
of species present in P1 but not in P2; 'c' is the number of species present
Where: in P2 but not in P1
H = Shannon – Weiner index (the uncertainty of species identity) Therefore, differentiation diversity (βD) is
Pi = ni/N
βD = (Sor12 + Sor13 + Sor14 + … + Sorn )/ n
ni = Number of individuals of each species in the sample (9)
N = Total number of individuals of all species in the sample
Where: Sorij – Sorensen similarity index among paired sites; n –
ii. Simpson's Index of Dominance [14]. Number of paired sampling sites
∑ ∑ /
λ= pi 2 βD = Sorij n (10)

λ = Σ ni (ni–1) /[N (N – 1)]

Where:Sorij – Sorensen similarity index among paired sites; n – Number
∑ of paired sampling sites
λ= ni(ni − 1)/[N(N − 1) ] (2)

2.3. Data analysis

iii. Buzas and Gibson's evenness [64]:
/ The data obtained was subjected to descriptive and inferential sta­
eH S (3) tistical analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 software to determine the
abundance of fish species. Fish species diversity was carried out by using
Palaeontological Statistics (PAST 3.21). Friedman test (a non-parametric
iv. Alpha (α) diversity: statistics) and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests (Post hoc analysis) were used
α = ni (4) to test for the differences between spatial distributions of fish species in
Ikere-gorge [23,24].

3. Results
Where ni is the list of individual species or species richness in a partic­
ular sampling site [15–18] 3.1. Species composition and abundance

v. Gamma (γ) diversity: This study reported forty-one (41) fish species belonging to thirteen
(13) families spatially distributed randomly among four sampling sta­
γ = Ni (5)
tions in Ikere-gorge. The families of Mormyridae, Cichlidae, Cyprinidae
were the most represented families with 10, 8 and 6 species respectively.
Bagridae family was represented by 3 species, while each of Channidae,
Where Ni is the total list of individual fish species in a particular Mochokidae, Clariidae, Alestidae, and Malapteruridae family has 2
ecosystem [15–17] species representation and likewise each of Arapaimidae, Hepsetidae,
Centoropomidae, and Schilbeidae has 1 species representation in the
vi. Proportional (βP) [15–17,19] fish composition of Ikere-gorge (Table 1).
/ Sarotherodon galilaeus (43.93%) has the highest contribution by
βP = γ α1 (6) abundance to the total fish catch, followed by Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus
(20.58%) and Chromidotilapia guntheri (8.71%). Other fish species
contributed less than 5%; but four fish species contributed less than
0.01%. Percentage relative abundance was used to group fish species of
But modified form of eq. (6) as given by [20] is used as it is applicable Ikere-gorge into five different categories. Three fish species were cat­
to some statistical package (PAST, R etc) for the evaluation of β-diversity egorised as abundant species, each species had percentage relative
as follows: abundance that was above 5%. The total contribution of these dominant
/ fish species to the total fish abundance in Ikere-gorge was 73%. Eight
βP = γ α1 –1 (7)
fish species were classified as common fish species; each had percentage
Subtraction of 1 from eq. 8 means that β = 0 when there are no excess relative abundant that is between 1% and 4%. They contributed 20% to
total fish catch. Fourteen fish species were grouped as fairly common;

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Table 1 Table 2
List of finfish species of Ikere gorge, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria. Percentage composition of fish species abundance and weight in Ikere-gorge,
Fish family Finfish species
Iseyin.
Fish species Abundance % Wt (Kg) % Wt Statusa
Claroteidae Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Lacepede, 1803)
Abundance
Auchenoglanis occidentalis (Valenciennes, 1840)
Bagridae Bagrus docmak (Forsskal, 1775) Sarotherodon 35,076 43.93 1599.68 29.14 A
Arapaimidae Heterotis niloticus (Cuvier, 1829) galilaeus
Channidae Parachanna Africana (Steindachner (1879) Chrysichthys 16,436 20.58 1005.24 18.31
Parachanna obscura (Gunther (1861) nigrodigitatus
Cichlidae Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus (1758) Chromidotilapia 6952 8.71 78.52 1.43
Sarotherodon galilaeus (Linnaeus (1758) guntheri
Tylochromis jentinki (Steindachner (1894) Tylochromis jentinki 3365 4.21 284.97 5.19 C
Pelmatolapia mariae (Boulenger (1899) Hemichromis 3267 4.09 35.51 0.65
Coptodon zillii (Gervais (1848) faciatus
Chromidotilapia guntheri (Sauvage (1882) Lates niloticus 2174 2.72 1033.74 18.83
Coptodon guineensis (Gunther (1862) Petrocephalus bovei 1653 2.07 18.13 0.33
Hemichromis faciatus (Peters (1857) Coptodon guineensis 1638 2.05 68.68 1.25
Mormyridae Mormyrus rume (Valenciennes (1847) Coptodon zillii 1588 1.99 79.17 1.44
Hyperopisus bebe (Lacepede (1803) Brycinus 1151 1.44 187.69 3.42
Petrocephalus bovei (Valenciennes (1847) macrolepidotus
Mormyrops anguilloides (Linnaeus (1758) Schilbe mystus 959 1.20 67.82 1.24
Mormyrops oudoti Daget (1954) Synodontis 744 0.93 109.17 1.99 FC
Brienomyrus brachyistius (Gill, 1862) batensoda
Pollimyrus isidori (Valenciennes, 1847) Oreochromis 689 0.86 100.36 1.83
Brienomyrus niger (Gunther, 1866) niloticus
Marcusenius senegalensis (Steindachner, 1870) Hyperpisus bebe 577 0.72 108.03 1.97
Gnathonemus brucii (Boulenger, 1910) Pelmatolapia 529 0.66 50.10 0.91
Mochokidae Synodontis batensoda (Ruppell, 1832) mariae
Synodontis nigrita (Valenciennes (1840) Mormyrus rume 485 0.61 145.10 2.64
Clariidae Heterobranchus longifilis (Valenciennes, 1840) Clarias gariepinus 470 0.59 128.92 2.35
Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) Brycinus longipinnis 468 0.59 5.19 0.09
Hepsetidae Hepsetus odoe (Bloch, 1794) Hepsetus odoe 277 0.35 77.02 1.40
Centoropomidae Lates niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758) Synodontis nigrita 250 0.31 26.31 0.48
Schilbeidae Schilbe mystus (Linnaeus, 1758) Barbus occidentalis 214 0.27 2.18 0.04
Alestidae Brycinus macrolepidotus (Valenciennes, 1850) Heterotis niloticus 175 0.22 93.30 1.70
Brycinus longipinnis (Gunther, 1864) Parachanna 165 0.21 38.34 0.70
Cyprinidae Labeo coubie (Ruppell, 1832) africana
Labeo parvus (Boulenger, 1902) Mormyrops 143 0.18 48.60 0.89
Raiamas senegalensis (Steindachner, 1870) anguilloides
Leptocypris niloticus (Joannis, 1835) Labeo coubie 116 0.15 10.71 0.20
Barbus chlorotaenia (Boulenger, 1911) Parachanna obscura 69 0.09 13.96 0.25 UC
Barbus occidentalis (Boulenger, 1911) Bagrus docmak 52 0.07 18.68 0.34
Malapteruridae Malapterurus beninensis (Murray, 1855) Mormyrops oudoti 38 0.05 9.85 0.18
Malapterurus electricus (Gmelin, 1789) Brienomyrus niger 36 0.05 0.88 0.02
Heterobrancus 31 0.04 27.96 0.51
Key: *Source: Fishbase; gbif.org; [4].
longifilis
Marcusenius 16 0.02 1.13 0.02
each had percentage relative abundance that is between 0.1% and 1%. senegalensis
Labeo parvus 12 0.02 0.93 0.02
They contributed 7% to total fish catch. Twelve fish species were
Barbus chlorotaenia 9 0.01 0.06 0.00
grouped as uncommon each had relative abundance that is between Auchenoglanis 7 0.01 11.96 0.22
0.01% and 0.1%. Four fish species were classified as rare; each had occidentalis
percentage relative abundance below 0.01%. Both uncommon and rare Brienomyrus 4 0.01 0.08 0.00
fish species contributed less than 0.01% to total fish catch (Table 2). brachyistius
Pollimyrus isidori 4 0.01 0.03 0.00
Sarotherodon galilaeus (29.14%) had the highest contribution by
Raiamas 4 0.01 0.07 0.00
weight to the total fish catch, followed by Lates niloticus (18.83%) and senegalensis
Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (18.31%). Other fish species contributed less Gnathonemus brucii 3 0.00 0.38 0.01 R
than 2% by weight to fish production in Ikere-gorge dam. Moreover, Malapterurus 2 0.00 0.14 0.00
Cichlidae family dominated the total fish production by abundance with beninensis
Leptocypris niloticus 1 0.00 0.09 0.00
67%, Bagridae (21%), Mormyridae (4%), Centropomidae (3%) and Malapterurus 1 0.00 0.12 0.00
Alestidae (2%). Other families contributed less than 2%. Cichlidae electricus
family still dominated the total fish production by weight with 42%, TOTAL 79,850 100 5488.75 100.00
while Bagridae and Centropomidae both contributed 19% respectively, Wt = Weight.
(21%), Mormyridae (6%), Alestidae (4%), Clariidae (3%), Mochokidae a
A = Abundant (> 5), C = Common (1–4%), FC = Fairly common (0.1–0.9%),
and Arapaimidae contributed 2% each. Other families contributed less UC = Uncommon (0.01–0.09%), R = Rare (< 0.01).
than 2% (Table 2).
contribution by abundance (1457) and weight (886.3 kg) to the total fish
3.2. Spatial and seasonal distribution of fish species in Ikere-gorge, Iseyin catch, and the month of January had the least contribution by abun­
dance (217) and weight (173.58 kg) as shown in Fig. 3. Likewise, it was
Spillway contributed most in terms of species richness (34), fish observed that wet season (March – October) had higher record of fish
abundance (42,306) and relative abundance (53%). This is followed by catch by abundance (57,097) and weight (3671.2 kg) compared to dry
Asamu, Irawote and Agatu. Likewise, the highest total weight of fish season (Fig. 4).
catch was recorded in Spillway (2964.64 Kg; 54%), followed by Asamu, The Friedman test showed that there was a statistically significant
Agatu and Irawote (Fig. 2). The month of April had the highest difference in spatial distribution of fish species among the sampling

4
S.O. Ajagbe et al. Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 2. Abundance and weight (Kg) of fish catch from the four sampling site in Ikere-gorge, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Fig. 3. Monthly variation of fish catch (abundance and weight) in Ikere-gorge, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria.

sites, χ2 = 73.77, p = 0.00. Post hoc analysis with Wilcoxon signed-rank p = 0.562). But, there were statistically significant differences between
tests was conducted with a Bonferroni correction applied, resulting in a spatial fish species distribution among other paired sampling sites
significance level set at p < 0.0125. There was no significant difference (Table 3).
between spatial fish distribution among Agatu and Irawote (Z = − 0.580,

5
S.O. Ajagbe et al. Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. Seasonal variation of fish catch (abundance and weight) in Ikere-gorge, Iseyin, Oyo State.

Table 3
Output of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
Test statisticsa

Agatu - Asamu Spillway - Asamu Irawote - Asamu Spillway - Agatu Irawote - Agatu Irawote – Spillway
b c b c c
Z − 4.753 − 4.584 − 4.077 − 5.491 − .580 − 5.359b
Asymp. Sig.(2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.562 0.000
a
Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test.
b
Based on positive ranks.
c
Based on negative ranks.

3.3. Species diversity

Table 5
Diversity indices of finfish species in Ikere-gorge, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria.
It was observed that Spillway had the highest abundant fish pro­
duction while Agatu had the least contribution. The gamma diversity Diversity variables Asamu Agatu Spillway Irawote Ikere (Pooled)

(γ), which is the species richness or the total number of different fish Individuals 17,851 9549 42,306 10,144 79,850
species obtained in Ikere-gorge as an ecosystem was 41. Diversity among Taxa_S (α) 34 30 39 29 41
Dominance_D 0.24 0.31 0.24 0.28 0.25
and between the four sampling sites or gradient diversity is divided into
Shannon_H 2.03 1.84 1.97 1.91 1.99
two: proportional diversity (βP = γ/α1–1) was 0.24 and differentiation Evenness_e^H/S 0.22 0.21 0.18 0.23 0.18
∑
diversity (βD = Sor/α1) was 0.86. But pairwise beta (β) diversities
among sampling site were shown in Table 4. The alpha (α) diversity
which is the species richness of each sampling sites varied between stations in Ikere-gorge, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria. [25,26] had earlier
Spillway (39) and Agatu (30). Other components of alpha diversity such reported 34 species belonging to 13 families in Ikere-gorge, Oyo State.
as Dominance D (which is the probability that if two individual species Examining the result of [25,26], it was noticed that Phago loricatus of the
are drawn at random from Ikere-gorge, they will be of the same species); Distichodentidae family was reported, but absent in the present study. It
Shannon Weiner index and Evenness were shown in Table 5. was also noticed by the fishermen that Phago loricatus is one of those fish
species missing in fishermen catch in Ikere-gorge recently. [27] had
4. Discussion earlier noticed loss of species in freshwater body. Likewise, Heterotis
niloticus of Arapaimidae family was not reported in the earlier study but
In this study, forty-one (41) fish species belonging to thirteen (13) it is reported in this study. This result does not negate the fact that there
families were reportedly distributed randomly among four sampling is decline in biodiversity in freshwater as noted by [28] but, the varia­
tion noted in the earlier and present report in the same water body may
be due to difference in time, length of sampling period, gear and sam­
Table 4 pling design [29].
Whittaker beta (β) diversity pairwise analysis of Ikere-gorge, Oyo State, Nigeria.
The result showed that Cichlidae family dominated the total fish
Sampling sites Asamu Agatu Spillway Irawote production followed by Bagridae and Mormyridae. This is in agreement
Asamu 0.00 with the earlier findings of [26], who reported that Bagridae, Cichlidae
Agatu 0.16 0.00 and Mormyridae were the most abundant families in Ikere-gorge. This is
Spillway 0.10 0.16 0.00 also in agreement with [30,31] in separate studies. Mormyrids are well
Irawote 0.14 0.12 0.15 0.00
diverse in Nigeria freshwater ecosystems. This study reported 10 species

6
S.O. Ajagbe et al.
of Mormyridae family out of the 31 species in 11 genera occurring in
Nigerian freshwater [4] but it is observed that there is a decline in the
abundance of Mormyridae family in Ikere-gorge. This observation cor­
roborates the observation of [32] who reported reduction in the abun­
dance of Mormyridae family in Ogooué basin, in which 12 out of 20
Mormyrids found in the basin are endemic to it. Therefore, they
concluded that the present situation does not do justice to this family's
true diversity in the Ogooué basin. Centropomidae family represented
by Lates niloticus an invasive species [33,34] is replacing Mormyridae
family, with respect to its contribution by weight. Likewise, it is
observed that many fishermen in Ikere-gorge bait their gears (hooks and
lines) with Mormyrids to catch L. niloticus. This may be an indication
that L. niloticus is a predator and contributes to the decline of Mormyr­
idae family in Ikere-gorge. L. niloticus in Ikere-gorge is becoming more
abundant and attracting foreign market.
It is also noted that among the Cichlidae family, Sarotherodon gali­
laeus dominated fish species production in abundance and weight of
Ikere-gorge. This is in agreement with results of [25,35]. Nevertheless
some studies revealed dominance of other species of Cichlidae in some
other freshwater ecosystem in Nigeria. [36] reported dominance of
Tilapia zilli in River Fete, Benue State; [37] reported the dominance of
Tilapia zilli in Eleyele reservoir; [38] reported the dominance of Tilapia
zillii in an Aging Reservoir; [39] reported that Oreochromis niloticus is the
dominant species in Lake Kalgwai Jigawa State, Nigeria. [40] reported
that Oreochromis niloticus (70.1%) was the most abundant fish species in
Gubi Reservoir, Bauchi State, Nigeria.
The success of some tilapias in colonising a wide range of novel
habitats has been attributed, in general, to their opportunistic food
habits. Although, Cichlids exhibit different and overlapping food habit
which can vary widely depending on the location of their habitat; but
they are principally omnivorous [41–43]. They feed on phytoplankton,
zooplankton and aquatic plants, terrestrial vegetation, aquatic and
terrestrial macro-vertebrates, tadpoles, including various insects, crus­
taceans, fish and fish scales depending on the surroundings. This shows
that food is rarely a limiting factor. Their flexibility in growth rate and
maturation size according to prevailing environmental conditions also
contribute to their abundant. The dominance of Cichlids in the present
study could be attributed to their food habit, adaptation to environ­
mental conditions, prolific breeding pattern and good parental care
[36,43–45].
There are 553 species of freshwater fishes recorded from West Africa
[46], 266 species are found in the freshwater ecosystem of Nigeria [47].
This shows that freshwater fish species of Nigeria is one of the richest in
West Africa and more than 15% of these fish are found in Ikere-gorge;
but Cichlids has the highest abundance. The studies of fish diversity in
Nigerian freshwater ecosystem revealed that Cichlidae family had
almost colonized and dominated freshwater ecosystem in Nigeria. This
observation is in agreement with the findings of [48] who reported that
the family Cichlidae dominated the catches by number and abundance
in Dogon ruwa water body of Kamuku National Park, Birnin Gwari,
Nigeria; [49] reported that Cichlids were numerically most dominant of
the catches in Gbedikere Lake, Bassa, Kogi State; [50] observed that the
families of Cichlidae and Mormyridae were the most abundant consti­
tuting 59.18 and 29.95% of the total catch respectively in Tagwai Lake
Minna, Nigeria; [7] reported that the most dominant fish family by
number was Cichlidae in Tagwai reservoir, Minna, Niger state Nigeria;
[51] noticed that Cichlidae was the most abundant fish family in a
Tropical Rainforest River in Southeast Nigeria. [38] reported that the
dominated fish composition was the family cichlidae, with its seven
species accounting for 89.8% of the total catch in an Aging Reservoir.
[36] observed that the family Cichlidae dominated the fish population in
River Fete, Benue State, Nigeria. [35] noticed that Cichlidae dominated
the fish population and Saratherodon galilaeus was the most abundant
species of fish (72.5%) in Doma Reservoir, Nasarawa State, Nigeria.
However, some studies disagreed with the observation and reported
other families of freshwater fish as the most abundant in freshwater
7
Acta Ecologica Sinica xxx (xxxx) xxx
ecosystem of Nigeria. [52] reported that the family Mormyridae and
Characidae were the most abundance in Apodu reservoir, Malete,
Nigeria. [44] observed that the fish with the highest species distribution
and abundance in three water bodies in Asaba Metropolis, Delta State,
Nigeria is the Mochokidae. However, they noticed that the Cichlids were
the most diversified dominated by Oreochromis niloticus. [53] reported
that two families namely Characidae and Clariidae constituted the
dominant fish families in Owena reservoir, Ondo State, Nigeria. [54]
observed that the most dominant families were Mochokidae followed by
Clariidae, in River Ovia, Edo State, Nigeria. [55] reported that Claridae,
followed by Mormyridae and Cichlidae were the most dominant families
in Ogbese River, South West, Nigeria.
This study identified Gnathonemus brucii, Malapterurus beninensis,
Leptocypris niloticus and Malapterurus electricus as rare species. They
contributed 0% to relative abundance of Ikere-gorge. This observation is
in agreement with the findings of [56] who classified Leptocypris niloticus
as rare fish species in the lower Nun River, Niger Delta, Nigeria. Like­
wise, [57] reported that Leptocypris niloticus was the least abundant fish
species in Gubi Dam, Bauchi State of Nigeria. [25] also reported that
Malapterurus electricus was the least abundant in Ikere-gorge but, in
contrast, [58] reported that Malapterurus electricus was one of the most
abundant species in a Tropical Lagoon in South-West Nigeria. [59] re­
ported that Malapterurus electricus was one of the most abundant in the
Lower Cross River Flood Plain, Nigeria. Likewise, [39] reported that
Malapterurus electricus was numerically abundant in Lake Kalgwai
Jigawa State, Nigeria. Among these mentioned fish species, Gnathone­
mus brucii is listed by [60] in International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable.
Likewise, Barbus chlorotaenia, Auchenoglanis occidentalis, Brienomyrus
brachyistius, Pollimyrus isidori and Raiamas senegalensis may likely
become rare species; they contributed 0.01% to fish abundance in Ikere-
gorge. These fish species need to be preserved and conserved from
extinction. This observation is in agreement with the findings of [61]
that Brienomyrus brachyistius contributed insignificantly to fish compo­
sition of Iba-Oku Stream, Ikpa River, Nigeria. Also, [40] reported that
Raiamas senegalensis (0.01%) was the least abundant fish species in Gubi
Reservoir, Bauchi State, Nigeria. But, [62] reported an appreciable
number of Raiamas senegalensis in River Taraba in Bali Town, Taraba
State, Nigeria.
It was observed that fish were more abundant in the rainy season
than in the dry season in Ikere-gorge. This may due to the length of rainy
season that covers about eight months (March – October) while the dry
season covers just four months of the year. This observation was in
agreement with [58] who reported that species richness and total
abundance were found to increase slightly during the rainy season than
the dry season in a Tropical Lagoon in South-West Nigeria. [61] reported
that monthly and seasonal abundance showed highest in March 71
(23.10%) during the dry season and July 68 (21.79%) during the wet
season, respectively in Iba-Oku Stream, Ikpa River, Nigeria. But, [62]
reported that seasonal fish abundance was high in the dry season
(57.43%) and low in the wet season (42.57%) in River Taraba in Bali
Town, Taraba State, Nigeria.
This study reported the total number of 79,850 individual fish. The
gamma (γ) diversity which the total number of species (species richness)
found in Ikere-gorge as an ecosystem is 41. This is greater than 17
species observed by [38] in an aging Reservoir; 28 species reported by
[36] in River Fete, Benue State; 27 species reported by [39] in Lake
Kalgwai Jigawa State, Nigeria and less than 81 species reported by [54]
in River Ovia, Edo State. The alpha (α) diversities in the four sampling
villages were spatially varied. The difference in the number of species
recorded in each sampling village is in agreement with the observation
of [29] that fish communities show non-random pattern in fish
composition over time and space.
Beta (β) diversity is the variation in species composition among sites
in the geographic area of interest [63] This study showed that propor­
tional diversity (βP) and differentiation diversity (βD) are 0.24 and 0.86
S.O. Ajagbe et al.
respectively. [16] explained that proportional diversity (βP) is the rela­
tionship between two scales of investigation taking into account species
numbers, while differentiation diversity (βD) is the similarity between
pairs of samples taking into account species distinction. This result
indicated that the percentage of excess species, dissimilarity or hetero­
geneity between sampling sites in Ikere-gorge is 24%, because βP will be
zero (0%) if there is no excess species, dissimilarity or no heterogeneity
between sites [20]. Likewise, percentage of similarity or homogeneity
between the sampling sites in Ikere-gorge is 86%. It was observed that
Simpson Index of heterogeneity values for all the sites is approximately
to 1, indicating high diversity of fish in Ikere-gorge. This is also
confirmed with the values of Shannon Wienner (H) index and Evenness.
This is in agreement with the findings of [39]) for fish species in Lake
Kalgwai Jigawa State, Nigeria; with Simpson Index of heterogeneity of
0.77. Likewise, [61] reported Shannon Wienner (H) of 2.62 which
indicated that fish are highly diverse in Iba-Oku Stream, Ikpa River,
Nigeria. The values of Dominance and Shannon-Wiener obtained in this
study are higher than the values reported by [39,54]. The reasons for the
difference may be due to the number of species recorded in each study
and the total number of individual fish.
5. Conclusion
The result obtained in this work shows variation in the abundance
and diversity of fishes in Ikere-gorge overtime. It was observed that the
families of Cichlidae and Mormyridae were the most abundant families;
but Sarotherodon galilaeus was the most abundant fish species both by
number and weight in Ikere-gorge. However, Gnathonemus brucii,
Malapterurus beninensis, Barililus loati and Malapterurus electricus are
identified as rare species in Ikere-gorge but Gnathonemus brucii is listed
as vulnerable. Therefore, there is need for urgent and critical action to be
taken to preserved and conserve these fishes from extinction.
Funding
This work was supported by Idea Wild Biodiversity Conservation
Organization 420 Riddle Drive, Fort Collins Co 80521, United State of
America. www.ideawild.org 2017.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Idea Wild (USA) for
provision of research equipments. Likewise the support and permission
of the Management of Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria; Federal
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta Nigeria and Ogun-Oshun River
Basin Development Authority is highly appreciated.
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