The changing ecosystem of Lake Victoria, East Africa
Dramatic changes are occurring in the Lake Victoria ecosystem. Two-thirds of the endemic haplochromine cichlid species, of international interest for studies of evolution, have disappeared, an event associated with the sudden population explosion of piscivorous Nile perch (Lates: order Perciformes, family Centropomidae) introduced to the lake some thirty years ago. The total fish yield has, however, increased 5-fold from 1970 to 1990, but this yield is now dominated by just three fish species: the introduced Nile perch (Lates niloticus), Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), and a small endemic pelagic cyprinid (Rastrineobola argentea); these three have replaced a multispecies fishery. Contemporaneously the lake is becoming increasingly eutrophic with associated deoxygenation of the bottom waters, thereby reducing fish habitats. Conditions appear to be unstable.
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| Format: | article biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1994
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| Subjects: | Ecology, Pollution, Limnology, fishery, limnology, lake fisheries, population dynamics, Africa, Lake Victoria, Lates niloticus, Oreochromis niloticus, Rastrineobola argentea, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1834/22153 |
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