Globally, our knowledge on lake fisheries is still limited despite their importance to food security and livelihoods. Here we show that fish catches can respond either positively or negatively to climate and land-use changes, by analyzing time-series data (1970-2014) for 31 lakes across five continents. We find that effects of a climate or land-use driver (e.g., air temperature) on lake environment could be relatively consistent in directions, but consequential changes in a lake-environmental factor (e.g., water temperature) could result in either increases or decreases in fish catch in a given lake. A subsequent correlation analysis indicates that reductions in fish catch was less likely to occur in response to potential climate and land-use changes if a lake is located in a region with greater access to clean water. This finding suggests that adequate investments for water-quality protection and water-use efficiency can provide additional benefits to lake fisheries and food security.

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Ecología trófica del pez exótico Guatapote del Lerma Poeciliopsis infans (Cyprinodontiformes: Poeciliidae) en el Lago de Pátzcuaro, Región Central de México. Exotic fish species has caused several impacts on aquatic biodiversity. The Lago de Pátzcuaro has some well-studied exotic species, except the Lerma livebearer Poeciliopsis infans. This fish species was introduced into the Lago de Pátzcuaro before 1997 and the aspects of its biology are still unknown. In this study we assessed aspects of the trophic ecology of this exotic fish, P. infans, using gut content and stable isotope analysis to understand its capacity to tolerate anthropogenic environmental degradation in the Lago de Pátzcuaro. We also determined its trophic guild position (TP) using the TrophLab Program and stable isotope. Niche breadth was calculated by standardized Levins' Index (Bi). Fish was captured with a seine during wet and dry seasons at six environmentally different sites and gut contents were obtained. We analyzed a total of 239 gut contents of P. infans. The contribution of each food item in the diet was quantified using frequency of occurrence and area percentage. The importance of each prey item was determined according to the index of relative importance (IRI), and the omnivory index (OI) was used to assess the feeding behavior. Fish were categorized by size and the diet was compared between fish sizes and sites. Dorsal muscle tissue and water hyacinth tissue was obtained for nitrogen isotope signature (δ 15 N) analysis. Additionally, we measured water and habitat quality to evaluate environmental conditions at each site. We concluded that P. infans is an omnivore (OI=0.28) that consumes mainly detritus (44%), epiphytic diatoms (37%), and secondary on terrestrial insects (6%) and zooplankton (10%). The fish can behave as a specialist (Bi=0.39) or generalist (Bi=0.68) and as a primary consumer (TROPH=2.2; TP=2.3) with a feeding strategy that was the same at different sizes, seasons and sites. None of the evaluated sites showed good environmental quality. We argue that P. infans can tolerate changes in water quality and feeding items availability, because it can exploit resources in multiple trophic webs. However, this species could be dependent on habitat complexity, especially in the aquatic vegetation cover.

We characterized the biotic integrity of the sub‐tropical Duero River, Mexico, comparing current and past index of biotic integrity (IBI) scores with results of an environmental quality index (EQI), inventorying abiotic characteristics and human impacts, and documenting ecosystem changes over the last three decades. We sampled the fish community and measured environmental variables during the dry season of 2009 at 19 sites. We compared 2009 findings with fish data obtained in 1986 and 1991 at nine of the sites. The correlation between the IBI and EQI was high (r2 = 0.79, p = 0.0002), indicating that the IBI accurately characterized environmental condition. Thirteen sites were degraded (68%) based on IBI scores, three were fair (16%) and three had good conditions (16%). Based on the EQI, 12 sites were classified as poor (63%), two as fair (11%) and five as good (19%). A cluster analysis of nine abiotic variables and the IBI values yielded three groups: six sites with good integrity and environmental quality, eight with high chemical oxygen demand and four with high total dissolved solids. A discriminant analysis (square canonical correlation: 0.922, and Wilks' lambda significance: 0.001) identified biochemical oxygen demand, distance to vegetation and total dissolved solids as the main predictors. Compared to 1986 and 1991, 2009 IBI values and ratings had declined significantly (multiple response permutation procedure A = 0.16, p = 0.0005), indicating a trend of environmental deterioration, with scores and ratings at 7 of 9 sites lower in 2009. One site had declined from good to fair, one from good to poor, five from fair to poor, one had remained fair and one had remained good. Degradation was related to excessive human water use, reduced river flows, increased wastewater discharge, deforestation, erosion, and invasive species, and mismanagement of preserved sites (springs), all of which highlight an urgent need to reverse declining environmental conditions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.