Structure of macrobenthic invertebrate population in the southern coast of Caspian Sea for fish cage culture establishment

This research in line with fish cage culture plan in the southern coast of the Caspian Sea was carried out. Sampling was seasonally in 8 transects at the depth of 5-100 m from Astara to Torkaman areas in 2008-2009. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution, abundance and biomass of macrobenthic invertebrate. The highest abundance and biomass were found in transects of Amirabad with average 10931.7±7301.4N/m2 and Astara with mean 86.2±160.3g/m2, respectively. This could be due to the presence of alien species into the Caspian Sea, Streblospio gynobranchiata in 2003 and is the dominant population of macrobenthic invertebrate concern up to 58.4% and increased of S. gynobranchiata (high power compatibility) and mussels of Cerastoderma glaucum (large size) is relevant, respectively. The abundance and biomass have fluctuations in different seasons and the highest abundance with average 6280.1±5693.1N/m2 and biomass with mean 66.1±126.9g/m2 was in winter and spring, respectively. A significant difference between abundance and transects (p0.05), significant difference between biomass and depth (p0.05) were found. Also, according to multivariate analysis of benthic invertebrate on the abundance at various depths revealed that depths of 5, 10 and 20 meters from the importance of certain fisheries in terms of frequency, abundance and biomass of the macrobenthic invertebrate, slope substrate, substrate, close to the beach, the accumulation of nutrients, Nursery ground, feeding ground and Spawning ground is important for different important species in the Caspian Sea. Therefore, the establishment of fish cage culture was recommended more than 20-meter depths according to the plans of fish cage culture in the southern coast of the Caspian Sea of the Iranian Fisheries Organization

Marine food web dynamics of small-sized pelagic fish in the Caspian Sea (Iranian’s water)

A mass-balance Ecopath model of coastal areas in the Caspian Sea has been constructed for a quantitative description of the trophic structure of the ecosystem. The model is used to estimate the important biological parameters and relationships among the different ecologically important groups. Twenty five species were used in the present analysis. The model is based on the data collected of Kilka fisheries, beach seining (Bony fish fisheries), and set Gillnet (Sturgeon Fisheries) and also dietary information. Total landings along the Iranian portion of southern Caspian coast reached 39647 t, including sturgeon (41 t), kilka (22873 t) and bony fishes (16733 t) in 2014. Two species of kilka (Common kilka and Anchovy) are important commercially in the Caspian Sea, together accounting in the past decade for > 60 % of the total catch, as well as being a crucial part of the food chain. The mean average trophic level was estimated at 3.17 by Ecopath software. In this research, the mean level were studied between eight species varied from 2.56 to 4.04, Sander lucioperca occupy the highest and the as vimba vimba was the lowest level. The ranges of total mortality varied from 0.5 to 2.56 per years. The food consumption rate was estimated about 101.56 per year Mixd trophic level index (MTI) showed small pelagic fishes as prey, have crucial role in feeding of pelagic predators population such as invasion of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, bream fish and benthic fish such as sturgeon. In general, niche overlap was greater in more species such as Alburnus chalcoides, Rutilus rutilus, Clupeonella cultriventris, Rutilus kutum and M. leidyi who consumed large amounts of plankton. In conclusion small pelagic fish exert a major control on the trophic dynamics of the Caspian Sea ecosystems and constitute midtrophic-level populations

The study of abundance and dynamic zooplankton in the Southern of Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea is the largest lake, both by its area and volume. Zooplankton are very important in the food web since many animals eat them. The Sampling was done in 4 transacts in Anzali, Tonekaboun, Noushahr and Amirabad at 3 different depths including 5, 10 and 20 m. Sampling was carried out in four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter in 2013. The annual changes of zooplankton was between 392±113 ind./ m^3 in autumn (Amirabad) to 8065±11735 ind./m^3 in winter (Amirabad). The lowest density of zooplankton in the spring was 2207 ind./ m^3 in Anzali. The density of zooplankton in Tonekabon and Amirabad was 2.0 and 2.8 fold more than other transects respectively. The results showed that the abundance of zooplankton in summer was between 1964±470 ind./m^3 (Amirabad) to 5706±6088 ind./m^3 (Tonekabon). The biomass was 30.02, 52.22, 22.98 and 18.31 in Anzali, Tonekabon, noshahr and Amirabad respectively. The abundance of zooplankton in the autumn reached the lowest value. The lowest value was 392 ±113 ind./m^3 and 3.71±0.19 mg/m^3 (Amirabad) and highest value was 2280 ±1435 ind./ m3 and 20.23±14.50 5mg/m^3 (Anzali). The highest density was observed in Amirabad (8065 ind./m^3) and Anzali (8061 ind./m^3) in winter. The aim of this study was diversity, distribution, density and biomass of zooplankton in the southern of Caspian Sea

Study on macrobenthic communities in the range of fish cage-culture area (before breeding) in the southern Caspian Sea (Mazandaran coast-Kelarabad)

The abundance and biomass of benthic macroinvertebrates were studied in the place of fish cage culture in southern coasts of Caspian sea (Mazandaran waters- kelarabad). The goal of this study was to consider of fish cage culture effects on the abundance and biomass of benthic macroinvertebrates. The sampling was carried out in 3 stations in depth of 20 meter of Kelarabad waters monthly. In this study 7 species were identified belonged to 5 genus of 4 family. Totally 23442 sample of benthic invertebrates were counted that the lowest and highest abundance were in station 1(23.4%) and station 2(46.8%) respectively. The results of stations study showed that the highest abundance and biomass were in stations 2 and 3 with the average of 646 ± 1230.4 n/m^2 and 0.526 ± 1.001 gr/m^2 respectively. This coulld be respectively dependant to not settling of cage (witness station) and appearance of Cerastoderma glaucum because of its large body in station 1. The difference of abundance and biomass between different stations was not significant (p ›0.05). The study on abundance and biomass in different seasons showed that the highest abundance in autumn with the avarage of 888.13 ± 1371.58 n/m^2 belonged to Strblospio gynobranchiata and the highest biomass belonged to C. glaucum which was because of appearance of not native species of polychaeta and also the species with shell covering from bivalvia. The results showed that the specie of S. gynobranchiata from polychaeta including 93.3% of abundance was the dominant specie that could be related to appropriate ecological conditions for living and high adaptability. It was concluded that the abundance and biomass of benthic macroinvertebrates in station 1 was lower than other stations which was related to fish cage culture activity and its effects on benthic macroinvertebrates. So it is suggested that each mariculture activity in southern coasts of Caspian Sea should be carried out with regarding to environmental considerations and performance of comparative evaluation project of environmental effects

The survey statistical and biological of sturgeon in the southern Caspian Sea (Mazandaran waters)

This study have been conducted entitle biological and statistical sturgeon in the southern Caspian Sea (Mazandaran waters)” from 2009 to 2013. Sampling was manthly. Overal, 1859 specimens of different species of sturgeon was caught including Acipenserpersicus (69%), A. stellatus (19%), Husohuso (6%), A. nudiventris (4%) and A. guldenstaedtii (2%). Totally, the meat and caviar of five species were found 53263.6 kg and 5633 kg respectively and caviar to meat ratio was 10.6%. The results show that ration of meat and caviar whole species reduced from 2009 to 2012 in which the meat and caviar of A. persicus was declined from 12146 to 4465 kg in meat and caviar from 1358 to 487 kg were extremely reduced respectively. The CPUE (catch per unit effort) of sturgeon has fluctuated from 2009 to 2012. Totally, the CPUE of A. persicus was decreased from 0.150 (2009) to 0.130 (2012) kg boat per day, A. stellatue from 0.009 (2009) to 0.021 (2012) kg boat/day, A. guldenstaedtii from 0.002 (2009) to 0.003 (2012) kg boat/day, A. nudiventris from 0.027 (2009) to 0.001 (2012) kg boat/day and H. huso from 0.123 (2009) to 0.018 (2012) kg boat /day. 1061 specimens of fish has been caviar including A. persicus with 69%, A. stellatus (18.1%), H. huso (5.5%), A. guldenstaedtii (2.7%). The frequency of caviar categorize was included 1 , 2, 3 and massive with 49.6%, 38%), 10.6% and 1.9%, respectively. The highest of meat and caviar belong to A. persicus with 31414 kg and 3515.7 kg, respectively were found and the lowest was 841kg and 105.9 kg pertain to A. guldenstaedtii. The results show that 65.9% of sturgeon was caught by legal catch (landing) and 34.1% by beach seine remained. 391 individuals was age determined that the minimum and maximum age was 9 and 41 year comprised to H.huso and A. stellatus, respectively. A. persicus and A. stellatus were majority caught compare to other species. A. persicus has the highest frequency in 14-15 year age groups with 50% and 57% in 2009 and 2011, respectively and 15-16 year age group with 41% and 56% in 2010 and 2012, respectively. The results show that mean of fork length, body weight, caviar weight of A. persicus was declined because the FL and weight average (±SD) obtained from 152.4±16.7cm and 25.8±9.2 kg in 2009 to 146.5± 18.7cm and 22.1±9.2kg in 2012, respectively. In contrast, the average (±SD) FL and weight of H. huso was increased from 218.8±41.1cm and 137.3±96.6kg in 2009 to 231.3±45.2cm in FL and 146.2±78.5kg body weight in 2012, respectively. Consequently, the results show that stocks of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea has a trend declined because of some species in IUCN categorize list was Endangered in 2006 but at this moment lie in Critically Endangered list of IUCN categorize were down which could be a serious alarm for the valuable sturgeon fish in the Caspian Sea. Therefore, recommendation that trade catch of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea must be forbidden and continue legal catch for spawner fish that needede to artificial propagation only

Modeling habitat preferences of Caspian kutum, Rutilus frisii kutum (Kamensky, 1901) (Actinopterygii, Cypriniformes) in the Caspian Sea

Predicting and modeling of habitat preferences of fish is a very important issue for aquatic management. Classification trees (CTs) were used to predict the habitat preferences of the Caspian kutum (Rutilus frisii kutum, hereafter kutum) in the southern Caspian Sea. The applied model was optimized with genetic algorithm (GA) and greedy stepwise (GS) to select the most explanatory variables for predicting the presence/absence of kutum. The suitability index was considered to determine the quality and suitability of fish habitat in the sea. The results of Paired Student's t tests showed that there was a significant difference between predictive performances of models before and after variable selection methods. Both optimizers improved the predictive power of CTs and resulted in a better understanding of CTs by making a selection of the sea characteristics that were used as inputs to the models. The results show that the effect of different seasons, sea depth, and photosyntheticaly active radiation were the main predictors affecting the habitat preferences of kutum in the Caspian Sea. Constructed trees in combination with GA and GS showed high capability when applied to predict the habitat preferences of this valuable commercial fish species. Determining the habitat needs of the target fish will enhance local fisheries performances and the long-term conservation planning of the fish to implement the ecosystem-based management in the Caspian Sea