WATER QUALITY AND BIODIVERSITY OF SHKUMBINI RIVER

摘要

Shkumbini is a good example of a river where human, environmental pressures and ecological values collide with each other. The aims of this work were to quantify the origin and degree of heavy metals contamination in the water and the presence and abundance of most significant fish species as well. The water and fish samples were collected in five stations from selected Shkumbini River during 2015. The results showed that the concentration of Cr, and Ni in some samples of the water were above the normal standards for rivers and can affect the organisms. Among the 15 fish species identified, the presence of eel (Anguilla anguilla), a critically endangered species (IUCN) in two sampling locations shows the importance of Shkumbini river as a migrating corridor for this species, while national wide due to hydropower construction and damming is seriously threaten. Further to that presence of flathead grey mullet (Mugilcephalus) and thin lip mullet (Liza ramada) is reinforcing importance of the river for both catadromic and anadromic taxons.