A seven-year monitoring on fish community around the Qigu Lagoon located on the southwest coast of Taiwan

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 540 records.

2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

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How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Hung M.-C., Hsueh M.-L., Hsieh L.-Y., Tsai W.-K., Hsieh C.-Y., Fang I, Tsai P.-H., Su Y.-J., Fang W.-Y. (2025). A seven year monitoring on fish community around the Qigu Lagoon located on the southwest coast of Taiwan. Version 1.0. Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute. Samplingevent dataset. https://ipt.taibif.tw/resource?r=qigu_long_term_fish_survey&v=1.0

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 63b115a8-da75-4d45-92f5-d43d99de95f3.  Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility.

Keywords

Samplingevent; Observation

Contacts

Geographic Coverage

Fish community composition data were collected at 6 stations in the Qigu Lagoon and the estuary of the Qigu River, while physicochemical parameters of water were measured at 7 stations in the same area. The Qigu Lagoon, located on the southwest coast of Taiwan, measures approximately 9 km in length from north to south, 5 km in width from east to west, and covers an area of 1,600 ha, making it the largest lagoon in the island. It has an average depth of 1 m. The sediment in the lagoon is primarily composed of sand. There are three sand barrier islands situated between the Qigu Lagoon and the Taiwan Strait: Qingshan Port Barrier Island, Wangzailiao Barrier Island, and Dingtou'e Barrier Island, listed from north to south. The Qigu River, which flows into the lagoon from the southeast, serves as the primary source of freshwater for the Qigu Lagoon. Dense set nets and oyster racks are present in the Qigu Lagoon and the ditches surrounding the Qigu River.

Taxonomic Coverage

No Description available

Temporal Coverage

Project Data

No Description available

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

Fish samples were collected from six sampling stations between 2015 and 2021. Collections were conducted every three months from 2015 to January, 2017 (February, May, August, and November in 2015; January, April, July, and October in 2016), and every two months thereafter (January, April, June, August, October, and December in 2017; January, March, May, July, September, and November during 2018-2020; February, April, June, August, October, and December in 2021). The stations were selected based on various environmental types, including the estuary, shallow waters of the lagoon, and the oyster farming area in the lagoons near the open sea. Pound nets were employed to collect fish samples at the sampling stations located in shallow waters (ST2, ST3, ST3-1, and ST4), while gill nets were utilized at the stations within the oyster farming area (ST3-7 and ST4-1). The pound nets consisted of several cylindrical hoop nets (mesh size: 1 cm × 1 cm) designed to capture fish, along with a lead component (height: 1.5 m, mesh size: 2 cm × 2 cm). This lead component comprises a series of bamboo stakes and netting that extend from the hoop net. When deployed, the netting was arranged in a V-shape or a Π-shape, with the opening facing the direction opposite to the outgoing tide. This configuration allowed fish to enter the hoop nets with the flow of water. Inside the hoop nets, funnel-shaped nets effectively prevented fish from escaping. The width of the opening of pound nets at ST2, ST3, ST3-1, and ST4 were 120 m, 30 m, 50 m, and 70 m, respectively. Each sampling session at these stations lasted at least 12 hours (approximately a tidal period). The gill nets (length: 200 m, width: 2.4 m, mesh size: 2 cm × 2 cm) were secured to floating oyster farming platforms and deployed in the waterways between the platforms for a duration of 12–14 hours, enmeshing fish that swam by. Setting and hauling in the nets were carried out by the commissioned local fishers. The surveyors supervised the fishers as they retrieved the nets at stations ST3-7 and ST4-1, documenting the environmental conditions at all stations, except for ST3-1, through photographs. The collected fish samples were placed in a cooler box, transported to the laboratory on ice, and subsequently identified, counted, and measured. The identification of the fish samples was performed by several surveyors in accordance with the Fish Database of Taiwan (https://fishdb.sinica.edu.tw/), Fishes of Taiwan (Shen, 1993), and Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species (Nakabo, 2013). After the identification of species, the morphological characteristics of fish collected including body length, total length, body depth, and body weight were measured. The measurement was conducted by a team of 2–4 individuals who double-checked each other's work. The physicochemical parameters of water—dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, redox potential, oxygen saturation, pH, salinity, water temperature, and turbidity—of surface water were measured at seven sampling stations using a multiparameter meter (HANNA HI9829) since 2018. At five sampling stations (ST2, ST3, ST4, and ST3-1), water measurements were conducted twice during a single tidal period every two months, specifically at two successive low and high tides. At the two sampling stations (ST3-7 and ST4-1) located near the open sea (i.e., in the oyster farming area), which could only be accessed by a raft operated by local fishers, measurements were taken only once every two months, regardless of tidal conditions.

Method step description:

1. The following steps are for fish sampling: (1) Commission local fishers to set pound nets and gill nets in the sampling stations. (2) Collect fish for at least one tidal period. (3) Place fish samples in a cooler box and transport them to the laboratory on ice. (4) Identify and count fish samples in accordance with the Fish Database of Taiwan (https://fishdb.sinica.edu.tw/), Fishes of Taiwan (Shen, 1993), and Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species (Nakabo, 2013). (5) A team of 2-4 surveyors collaborate on measurement of fish samples, including body length, total length, body depth, and body weight.
2. The following steps are for measurement of physicochemical parameters of water: (1) Calibrate the multiparameter meter (HANNA HI9829). (2) Put the probes of the multiparameter meter into the surface water at the sampling stations. (3) Wait until the reading values do not show increasing or decreasing trends. (4) One surveyor reads reading values aloud and another surveyor records the values on a sheet of paper. (5) Input the recorded data into a computer.

Bibliographic Citations

1. Nakabo, T. Fishes of Japan with Pictorial Keys to the Species. (Tokai University Press, 2013). ISBN 978-448-6018-04-9
2. Shao, K.-T. Fish Database of Taiwan (2025). https://fishdb.sinica.edu.tw/about
3. Shen, S.-C. Fishes of Taiwan. (Department of Zoology, National Taiwan University, 1993). ISBN 978-957-9019-44-6

Additional Metadata