Initial Usage of Fish Community to Assess Water Quality in Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve, Ninh Binh Province

Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve is the 9th Ramsar of Vietnam, which has high biodiversity. To assess water quality in this area, the present study initially used the Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index (H') and IBI (Index of Biotic Integrity) of fish community collected in two field surveys in September 2019 and May 2020. A total of 33 fish species belonging to 18 families, 8 orders were determined. The H' index was 1.983 and IBI as 32 indicated that the water quality in the Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve was poor, probably influencing on aquatic organisms. In general, physical-chemical analysis methods revealed that most of the water parameters in the surface layer are good, but many parameters ranged from B1 to A2 levels, especially for TP (Phosphate calculated as P) being at poor level of pollution (B1-B2). Thus, results obtained from both bio-indices and physical-chemical analysis seem similar and indicate that the water in Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve was not completely clean. This finding will contribute to providing data for the conservation of biodiversity and ecotourism development in the reserved area.