Ecological factors affecting the distribution of freshwater fishes in tropical Southern Africa
It is a sine qua non that: if a fish is to live, it must have water. 'It is not sufficient, however, to consider the distributioJ;1 of freshwater fishes entirely in terms of the amount of water in : the form of lakes, rivers, streams and marshes that are now, or have been in the past, avail able to make the existence of fishes in them ‘physically possible. As well as the physical factors inherent in the sheer existence of water, there are also ecological factors which affect the distribution of fishes. I do not propose in this short paper to discuss very much the physical (actors of the availability of water, watersheds, barriers and so forth: While much remains to be done, such aspects of the distribution have been discussed (for the area in question)ı by, among others, Worthington (1933), Ricardo (1943), de Beaufort (1951) and Poll (1957).ı Comparatively little is known, however, of the ecological factors involved, and it is the main purpose of the present paper to discuss some of these aspects.
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | article biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
South Africa
1962
|
| Subjects: | Fisheries, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1834/32747 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|