Relations between composition of fishes and hydromorphological variables in a very large river

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59258/hk.15656
Keywords: Ecohydrology, Machine Learning, fish-habitat relations, regression Random Forest, river habitat evaluation

Abstract

Understanding of the contribution of abiotic drivers to fish community structure in very large rivers is poor. In this study, we assigned the occurrence data of the 20 most common fish species in the Hungarian section of the Danube River from 2004 to 2022 to hydrodynamic variables from hydrological datasets and hydrodynamical simulations and looked for patterns among them using Machine Learning (ML). Among the nine abiotic factors used as independent variables in the analysis, the depth-averaged flow velocity, water depth and bed material composition were the most decisive variables, which aligns with the results of previous research. In addition, with our Random Forest model, we were able to predict the number of individuals of the 20 most common fish species in the given conditions in the entire Hungarian section of the Danube. These estimates refer to optimal habitat for fish species according to abiotic variables. In addition to the ML analysis, we showed the possibility of using the Danube fish faunistic database, which covers a large area and time, to investigate the relationships of the population (for example, the relationship between invasive and native species) using classical statistical methods. The results found here are in many cases consistent with the Random Forest model but give reason to extend the model with additional independent variables to better understand the ecology of the Danube fish species.

Author Biographies

Bendek Jandó, University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest

BENEDEK Jandó is a zoology student at the University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest. He is particularly interested in ecology and its frontier disciplines. He is a member of the Hungarian Biodiversity-research Society since 2020, and an active volunteer and data collector for Birdlife Hungary and the Ócsa Bird Ringing Station.

Vivien Füstös, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering

VIVIEN FÜSTÖS is a civil engineer and is currently doing a PhD at Pál Vásárhelyi Doctoral School of Civil Engineering and Earth Sciences. Her research topic is hydromorphologic assessment of riverine habitats on the micro- and mesoscale. Member of the Hungarian Hydrological Society since 2017.

Anatol Alexander Ermilov , Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering

ANATOL ERMILOV ALEXANDER  is a certified civil engineer, PhD student at the Department of Water Engineering and Water Management of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The topic of his doctoral research is the investigation of the interaction between river flow and the river bed. In 2015 TDK II. he won first place with the thesis "Numerical model-based investigation of the wind-induced water exchange processes of Balaton", and with this thesis he won first place in the Lászlóffy Woldemár diploma thesis competition of the Hungarian Hydrological Society. He defended his MSc thesis at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2017.

Zoltán Szalóky , Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem, Vízépítési és Vízgazdálkodási Tanszék

ZOLTÁN SZALÓKY obtained his PhD degree in 2017 at Eötvös Loránd University. He is currently an institute engineer at the HUN-REN Ecological Research Center. His field of research is hydrobiological and fish ecological studies of standing and flowing waters, with particular attention to fish communities of large rivers.

Tibor Erős , Balaton Limnological Research Institute

ERŐS TIBOR biológus, 2005-ben szerzett PhD fokozatot az Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetemen. Jelenleg a HUN-REN Balatoni Limnológiai Kutatóintézet igazgatója. Kutatási területe: halegyüttesek szerveződése édesvizekben, biológiai sokféleség és a környezeti tényezők kapcsolata édesvizekben, mintavétel reprezentativitása, monitorozás rendszerek fejlesztése, természetvédelmi területek kijelölése édesvizek természeti értékei alapján. 1999 óta a Magyar Hidrológiai Társaság tagja.

Sándor Baranya, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering

SÁNDOR BARANYA He graduated in Civil Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 2003 and received his PhD from the same university in 2010. Currently, he is an associate professor and the Head of the Department of Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineering at BME. His research interests include the study of riverbed morphology, flow and sediment transport using field methods and numerical modelling. He is a member of the Hungarian Hydrological Society since 2003.

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Published
2024-04-21
How to Cite
JandóB., FüstösV., ErmilovA. A., SzalókyZ., ErősT., & BaranyaS. (2024). Relations between composition of fishes and hydromorphological variables in a very large river. Hungarian Journal of Hydrology, 104(2), 4-15. https://doi.org/10.59258/hk.15656
Issue
Vol. 104 No. 2 (2024)
Section
Scientific Papers

Copyright (c) 2024 Benedek Jandó, Vivien Füstös, Alexander Anatol Ermilov, Zoltán Szalóky, Tibor Erős, Sándor Baranya

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