Fish Assemblage Shift after Japanese Smelt (Hypomesus nipponensis McAllister, 1963) Invasion in Lake Erhai, a Subtropical Plateau Lake in China

The introduction of non-native fish species is known to have adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems, but their effect plateau lakes not well studied. In this study, we examined the Japanese smelt (Hypomesus nipponensis) invasion assemblage in Lake Erhai, a subtropical lake southwestern China. Through cluster analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), found significant shift: population sharpbelly (Hemiculter leucisculus) fell by 67% catch per unit effort (CPUE) from 2.262 0.741; topmouth gudgeon (Pseudorasbora parva) 52% 0.61 0.29; icefish (Neosalanx taihuensis) plummeted 88% 0.736 0.088. Meanwhile, numbers for crucian carp (Carassius auratus) improved almost 185% 1.82 3.36. A Pearson correlation showed that these four significantly correlated with smelt: (?0.71), (?0.62), (0.81). This study documented expansion invasive native over time, thus providing case as theoretical basis further research into interspecies interactions.