Author(s)

Armel Ibala Zamba^1,2*, Magloire Boungou³, Tenda Hélène Dembe Louvinguila^1,2, Victor Mamonekene^1,2, Ronick Kombo¹, Ephraim Kamba¹, Gad Boukou¹, Lérège Batiabo Mikembi², Freedom Honest Poaty Ngot², Parisse Akouango¹

¹Laboratory of Animal Productions and Biodiversity, ENSAF, Marien Ngouabi University, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
²Laboratory of Research of Animal Biology and Ecology, IRSEN, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
³Laboratory Animal Biology and Ecology, Joseph University KI-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Ichthyofaunal diversity and the impact of anthropogenic activities on fish population assemblages were studied in Lake Cayo, a small lake located in the coastal region of the Republic of Congo. Twelve stations were sampled twice over a two-year period. Fishing techniques following standardized methods utilizing monofilament gill nets, and nine environment variables were measured at each station. A total of 11,361 specimens comprising 30 species in 28 genera and 18 families were collected with the Cichlidae being the most diversified. Redundancy Analysis with forward selection coupled with Monte Carlo permutation tests identified depth, pH and substrate as accounting for 57.7% of the total variance among the nine variables sampled (p < 0.05). The low Shannon’s diversity (1.16 ± 0.33) and Equitability (0.43 ± 0.12) indices at all sites, suggest that the Lake Cayo system is in poor ecological health.

Fish, Diversity, Ecological Health, Lake Cayo, Lower Guinea

Ibala Zamba, A. , Boungou, M. , Louvinguila, T. , Mamonekene, V. , Kombo, R. , Kamba, E. , Boukou, G. , Mikembi, L. , Ngot, F. and Akouango, P. (2020) Anthropogenic Impacts on Fish Populations in Lake Cayo (Republic of Congo, Central Africa). Open Journal of Ecology, 10, 757-767. doi: 10.4236/oje.2020.1012046.