Ichthyofauna of Doñana, southern Spain: checklist and historical variation

Raquel Moreno-Valcárcel, Carlos Fernández-Delgado and Francisco J. Oliva-Paterna

FiSHMED 2020.005: 14p

Abstract : The Doñana Natural Area is one of the most important protected areas in the Iberian Peninsula and has a wide variety of aquatic environments hosting a diverse biota. Despite the ecological and conservation relevance of fish, there is a scarce knowledge of the fish fauna in the Doñana Natural Area. In this study, we present an updated checklist of the ichthyofauna of Doñana and describe its long-term (1975-2014) temporal variation, based on fish records from scientific and grey literature and our own field surveys. The Doñana Natural Area hosts 28 fish species (19 native and 9 non-native). Native species have tended to decline in parallel with an increase in the richness of non-native species. The number of UTM squares 1×1 km hosting native species has not varied significantly along time, while squares with non-native species have increased, especially since 2002. Three threatened species, three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), Iberian arched-mouth nase (Iberochondrostoma lemmingii) and the southern Iberian chub (Squalius pyrenaicus), have not been detected in the last years, and should be considered as locally extinct. Fish assemblages of the Doñana Natural Area feature a poor conservation status, probably related with the increasing ecological pressure from the non-native biota, among other causes.

Keywords : Iberian Peninsula, fish assemblages, species richness, occurrence

Citation : Moreno-Valcárcel R, Fernández-Delgado C, Oliva-Paterna FJ (2020) Ichthyofauna of Doñana, southern Spain: checklist and historical variation. Fishes in Mediterranean Environments 2020.005: 14p. https://doi.org/10.29094/FiSHMED.2020.005

Article first published online : 22 September 2020

FiSHMED is an international scientific journal edited by 
the Iberian Society of Ichthyology – SIBIC