Fish Catch Records from the Upper Waimakariri River, 30-Year Time Series

Fish Density Data for: Disturbance provides limited respite for native fish against invaders contains fish catch records collected over 30 years from 424 fishing occasions in the upper Waimakariri River catchment. The dataset, authored by Julian Merder and last updated in May 2026, includes counts of native galaxiids and invasive trout/salmonids, each associated with a Pfankuch Index score for streambed disturbance.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between streambed disturbance (Pfankuch Index) and fish guild abundance.
• Analyzing long-term population trends for native galaxiids and invasive trout over a 30-year period.
• Comparing fish assemblage structure across low, medium, and high disturbance regimes.
• Investigating seasonal variation in fish abundance and detectability based on the month of sampling.

Strengths

• Data spans 30 years, providing a long-term ecological perspective.
• Includes 424 distinct fishing occasions, offering multiple sampling points.
• Uses a standardized ecological metric (Pfankuch Index) to quantify physical disturbance.
• Distinguishes between total and adult counts for two distinct fish guilds.

Limitations

• The dataset is small in size (26.4 KB), indicating limited scope.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Julian Merder via figshare.

Collection Method

Fish catch records collected from sampling occasions.

Time Range

Data collected over 30 years (specific start and end years not provided).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-25 21:35:37; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Upper Waimakariri River catchment.