Biodiversity of Estuarine Fish Faunas in West Africa

Abstract

In West Africa (between Ivory Coast and Sénégal), estuarine environments vary from lagoons to high discharge
\nrivers to inverse hypersaline estuaries. This results in a high diversity of estuarine fish species, with an important
\nturnover and a core of ubiquitous species. The species richness of a given estuary depends on the combination of
\nhydrological factors (marine or freshwater dominance) and biogeography (continental biogeographic regions). The
\ncatch rate is higher in lagoons and inverse estuaries than in normal estuaries, which can be explained by the
\npredominance of small juveniles in the latter. Clupeids are the most abundant fishes all over the region, but different
\nsystems have different dominant species. Assessing the functioning of West-African estuaries provides useful
\ncomparisons to Asian estuarine systems.