Opportunistic-tended life history traits of Siniperca kneri in the Three Gorges Reservoir, China: potential responses to impoundment

Reservoir impoundment changes original fl uvial habitats into lentic environments. Fish species adapted to lentic habitats may take the advantage of such habitat changes and show typical life history traits might facilitate the population increase. Siniperca kneri rarely occurred in fishery landing in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) area before its impoundment in 2003, but it is now a dominant species. In this study, a total of 438 females of S. kneri were collected monthly during September 2012 through January 2014 using gill nets in the TGR. The age, growth, and reproductive biology were then investigated, and compared with other S. kneri populations. The standard length at age 1 was 149.9 mm in the TGR, which is larger than the three compared populations (i.e., Sandaohe Reservoir, Xinfengjiang Reservoir, and North River), but smaller than one (the Guishi Reservoir). The youngest mature female in the TGR was age 1, which is younger than that of the two compared populations (i.e., Xinfengjiang Reservoir and the North River). The relative fecundity in the TGR was 140 eggs/g, which is higher than that of the only available compared population (Xinfengjiang Reservoir, 96 eggs/g). Our results demonstrated that S. kneri in the TGR tended to have faster growth in the first year, a younger age at first maturation, and higher reproductive effort. We suggest that such opportunistic-tended life history traits might facilitate rapid increase of the population.