Non-indigenous and native dominant fish of the Volga and Kama rivers (European Russia)

Study Extent

There are freshwater fish occurrence from 143 sites from 16 permanent large waterbodies of Volga and Kama rivers (European Russia). The sampling stations were chosen based on the coastal conditions: the presence of shallow water with beds of aquatic vegetation and, if possible, the absence of strong currents. The network of stations was formed with the maximum coverage of the entire water area of each reservoir.

Sampling

The main littoral fishing gear were: beach seine with a size of 10x1.5 m, 4 mm mesh in the cod-end and wings; beach seine with dimensions of 25x1.7 m, 10 mm mesh in wings, 5 mm in the cod-end; square fish lift net with 1.5 m side, 4 mm mesh and ichthyological scoop-net with 4 mm mesh. The instrument for pelagic fish catching was a midwater pelagic trawl with horizontal opening of 12 m, vertical opening of 1.5 m, and mesh in the cod end of 6 mm. The trawling time varied from 5 to 12 min. The trawling was carried out one or two times at each station, depending on the number of horizons in which pelagic fishes were concentrated.

Quality Control

The species were identified using the following keys [Koblitckaya, 1981; Atlas presnovodnykh..., 2003a, b; Kottelat, Freyhof, 2007]. Due to significant changes in the taxonomy of fish, the classification and Latin names are not presented in the original author's writing, but according to the latest edition (ver. 02/2023) of the international database “FishBase” [Froese, Pauly, 2023].

Method steps

1. The data has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 1888 occurrences for 52 taxa from 143 sampling sites with notes on sampling type.

Freshwater fish of Volga and Kama rivers - the largest river system in European Russia

1. Actinopteri
   rank: class

This dataset presents the distribution of freshwater fish in the water bodies of the Volga and Kama rivers (Russia).