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Reservoir proximity explains long-term transformation of riverine fish assemblage structure and function

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Abstract

Dams and their associated reservoirs have become so ubiquitous on the world’s riverscapes that only 23% of rivers now flow freely to the ocean. These artificial structures have known ecological consequences, but ecological studies often suffer from a lack of historical baseline data and uncertainty regarding the degree to which concepts are transferable among altered river systems. We reviewed historical fish assemblage survey data collected over 373 km of the upper Sabine River, Texas, USA during 1954–1955, prior to construction of large reservoirs at the upstream and downstream extents of the study area. We then repeated surveys using identical methods in 2023 after reservoirs were in place for multiple decades. The resulting dataset provided opportunity to measure impoundment-driven deviations from historical baseline conditions and test a suite of hypotheses centered on fish assemblage changes across a gradient of proximities (i.e., distances) from reservoirs. We found support for the proximity replacement hypothesis in which fish assemblages nearest to reservoirs experience the highest temporal beta diversity; support for the longitudinal recovery gradient hypothesis in which relative abundance of periodic life history strategists returns to a natural baseline with greater downstream distance from dam tailwaters; support for the proximity host loss hypothesis in which fishes that serve as hosts to Unionid mussels decline in reservoir tailwaters; and support for the proximity host gain hypothesis in which fishes that serve as hosts to Unionid mussels increase in the river-reservoir interface upstream of a dam. This work advances knowledge of ecological consequences associated with dam construction by revealing that concepts developed using space-for-time substitutions (i.e., without historical baseline information) remain pertinent when tested against historical benchmarks and these same concepts are applicable to unstudied systems.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its Supplementary Information files).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Bill Kirby and his team of biologists with the Sabine River Authority for providing logistical insight into the study area for this research project. Research was supported completely and in full by a grant from The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts under Grant Number 22-7564BG.

Funding

Research was supported completely and in full by a grant from The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts under Grant Number 22-7564BG.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology, Texas A&M University, 2258 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    Johnathan K. Ellard, Rebecca D. Mangold, Kevin W. Conway & Joshuah S. Perkin

  2. Department of Biology, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX, 75962, USA

    Anastasia Umstott & Carmen G. Montaña

  3. Department of Biology, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, 77705, USA

    Kole M. Kubicek

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  1. Johnathan K. Ellard
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  2. Rebecca D. Mangold
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  6. Kole M. Kubicek
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  7. Joshuah S. Perkin
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All authors contributed to the study conception, design, and data collection. Material preparation and analysis were performed by Johnathan K. Ellard and Joshuah S. Perkin. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Johnathan K. Ellard and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved of the final manuscript.

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Ellard, J.K., Mangold, R.D., Umstott, A. et al. Reservoir proximity explains long-term transformation of riverine fish assemblage structure and function.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-43222-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-43222-3

Keywords

  • Freshwater fishes
  • Unionid mussel hosts
  • Ecological baseline
  • River regulation
  • Dams
  • Beta diversity components

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