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May 5, 2017
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June 20, 2018
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Abstract

Lake Mansar, a subtropical and warm monomictic Ramsar wetland, is an important flyway for various winter migratory birds. During the present study, winter mortality of exotic carps weighing about 50gm to 2kg was observed in the lake during late December 2015 to early February 2016. Mortality was observed more in January as hundreds of small and few large dead fishes weighing >1.5kg were seen on different sites of the lakes during our visits to the lake. Among these, mortality percentage of Cyprinus carpio communis and Cyprinus carpio specularis was about 90% and 10%, respectively. Water quality analysis revealed low dissolved oxygen and high free CO2and BOD content in the lake water. Several field visits carried out over a period of several weeks, prior to, during, and after mortality, have led us to the conclusion that stress resulted from depletion of dissolved oxygen and increased free CO2 and was the main cause of sudden fish mortality. Although some fish kill in subtropical lakes during winters is a natural phenomenon but mass fish kills indicate some type of environmental stress and are ecologically unacceptable. As Mansar is a famous tourist destination in J&K, such mass fish kills pose serious threat to the economy of the State and affect the health of the inhabitants who rely on the lake for meeting their water requirements. Comparison of water quality data of winter months(December to February)of three years viz. year before (2014-15), during (2015-16) and after (2016-17) mass fish kill has shown lowest DO and highest free CO2record during the year of fish kill (2015-16) which further supports the present findings. The study proposes installation of aerators at different locations to aerate the lake water in order to prevent winter kills in future.

Keywords

Exotic species lake overturn Mansar lake Ramsar site water quality winter kill

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Sheikh, A. ., & Slathia , D. . (2018). Water quality changes and winter mortality of major carps (Cyprinus carpio communis and Cyprinus carpio specularis) in Mansar Lake (a Ramsar Site), Jammu, J&K, India. Environment Conservation Journal, 19(1&2), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.36953/ECJ.2018.191206
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