Issue |
Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst.
Number 424, 2023
Anthropogenic impact on freshwater habitats, communities and ecosystem functioning
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 27 | |
Number of page(s) | 12 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/kmae/2023023 | |
Published online | 11 December 2023 |
Research Paper
An alarming picture of larval fish assemblages entrained into the cooling system of the Kozienice Power Plant (Poland) revealed by DNA metabarcoding
1
Mazanów Fish Farm, Mazanów 8A, 24-340 Józefów nad Wisłą, Poland
2
Ichthyological Research and Expertise Laboratory PEBI Ltd., ul. Lea 236/9, 30-133 Kraków, Poland
3
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Mickiewicza 33, 31-120 Kraków, Poland
4
Biobank Lab, Department of Oncobiology and Epigenetics, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, ul. Pomorska 139, 90-235 Lodz, Poland
5
Society for the Earth, ul. Leszczyńskiej 7, 32-100 Oświęcim, Poland
* Corresponding author: mikhael.nowak@gmail.com
Received:
29
June
2023
Accepted:
10
November
2023
The annual entrainment of early life history stages of fishes (ELH) into the cooling system of the largest power plant in the Vistula River basin was assessed using passive capture techniques and DNA metabarcoding. Hydrological and thermal conditions during the 2022 breeding season were also analyzed. A total of 5,011 ELH individuals identified to four families and 23 species were recorded. ELH densities upstream of the power plant were an order of magnitude higher than they were downstream. Along with the phenology of occurrence and species composition of drift, this indicated very high (probably close to 100%) ELH mortality during passage through the cooling system. Taking into account low water discharge at constantly high water intake during the season, the absolute estimate of ELH individuals entrained into the cooling system was > 103 × 106. The power plant entrains a notable proportion of one-quarter to one-half of the total ELH drifting by, especially during low-flow periods. Together with the very high abundance of two invasive Ponto-Caspian gobies, the magnitude of the entrainment of ELH into the Kozienice Power Plant presents a truly alarming picture.
Key words: Early life history / fish mortality / large rivers / once-through cooling system / Vistula River
© M. Nowak et al., Published by EDP Sciences 2023
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY-ND (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.