Introduction

Ichthyofauna of the Kuban River system is comprised of three groups: the species also inhabiting other European rivers, the species inhabiting brackish waters of the Azov Sea and migrated to the Kuban, as well as by the endemic species found only in the Kuban Basin. The fish fauna of the Kuban River Basin is one of the most distinct amongst river basins of European Russia. In total, 94 fish species have been recorded in the Kuban Basin (Bogutskaya and Naseka 2002, Abell et al. 2008, our data) including 11 endemic species and evolutionary significant units: Alburnoides kubanicus Bănărescu, 1964, Barbus kubanicus Berg, 1912, Chondrostoma kubanicum Berg, 1914, Eudontomyzon cf. mariae (Berg, 1931), Gobio kubanicus Vasil'eva, 2004, Petroleuciscus aphipsi (Aleksandrov, 1927), Phoxinus sp., Ponticola cf. constructor (Nordmann, 1840), Romanogobio parvus Naseka et Freyhof, 2004, R. pentatrichus Naseka et Bogutskaya, 1998, Sabanejewia kubanica Vasil'eva & Vasil'ev, 1988 (Naseka 2010) (see photographs of some Kuban endemic fish species in Fig. 1). All endemic fish species are listed in the dataset presented.

Figure 1.  

Photographs of some endemic fish species of the Kuban Basin: A Alburnoides kubanicus (Kudako River); B Barbus kubanicus (Ubin River); С Petroleuciscus aphipsi (Il' River). Scale bar - 1 cm. Photographs by Oleg Artaev.

The Middle Kuban River is considered an important place for the conservation of freshwater fishes in the Caucasus (Freyhof et al. 2020). The Kuban Basin is a separate ecoregion (428 in Abell et al. 2008), fish fauna of which is distinct from other ecoregions of the Caucasus. The native fauna is also clearly distinct from that of Don (ecoregion 427), which is geographically close, but has a different geological history (Bogutskaya and Hales 2021). In addition to new occurrence records, the dataset presented contains information on the type localities of the endemic species with data on museum numbers of type specimens. The basin of the Kuban River is located in Northern Caucasus, a highly populated region with developed agriculture. High anthropogenic activity resulted in numerous alien fish invasions, some of which are now naturalised. Most of the alien species are from East and South-eastern Asia [Ctenopharyngodon idella (Valenciennes, 1844); Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (Valenciennes, 1844); Hypophthalmichthys nobilis (Richardson, 1845); Oryzias sinensis Chen, Uwa & Chu, 1989; Pseudorasbora parva (Temminck & Schlegel, 1846)], North America [Gambusia holbrooki Girard, 1859; Ictalurus punctatus (Rafinesque, 1818); Ictiobus bubalus (Rafinesque, 1818); I. cyprinellus (Valenciennes, 1844); I. niger (Rafinesque, 1819); Piaractus brachypomus (Cuvier, 1818); Polyodon spathula (Walbaum, 1792); Rocio octofasciata (Regan, 1903)] and a few species from Africa [Oreochromis aureus (Steindachner, 1864) and O. mossambicus (Peters, 1852)] (Moskul 1998, Moskul et al. 2012). The fish fauna of the Kuban Basin has been studied for a long time (e.g. Aleksandrov 1927, Berg 1949, Sukhanova and Troitskiy 1949, Tamanskaya and Troitskiy 1957, Troitskiy and Tsunikova 1988), but few publications contained data for certain localities. The goal of the study was to collect comprehensive data on occurrences of the Kuban fish species and to make these data available using GBIF (Artaev et al. 2021). The information on species distributions can be used by ichthyologists, ecologists, conservation biologists and managers of areas of nature protection.

General description

Project description

Sampling methods

Geographic coverage

Description: 

All occurrences were recorded within the Kuban River Basin which drains the North-western Caucasus and discharges into the Azov Sea and within the Large Stavropol' irrigation canal draining the the eastern part of the Kuban Basin and parts of the Kuma and Terek Rivers (both belong to Caspian Sea drainage – Fig. 2; the three most eastern localities out of the Kuban Basin belong to the Large Stavropol irrigation canal) and the upper part of Stavropol' canal discharging waters to the Manych-Don system. The length of the Kuban River is 870 km and watershed area is ca. 57900 km². The Basin can be subdivided into three geographical zones: highlands, submontane and lowlands. The main drainage area is the northern slopes of the Caucasus with 2600 mm precipitation (Kupriyanov 1973). Lower reaches of the Kuban are located in agricultural landscapes and a significant volume of the Kuban water is taken for irrigation. There is one reservoir on the Kuban River, the Krasnodar Reservoir, located in its lower reach. This is the largest reservoir in the Northern Caucasus. It was built at 1973 with an area around 400 km²; its length is 46 km and 8-11 km wide (Pogorelov and Laguta 2019). Climate is mild in the middle and lower reaches of Kuban Basin with sub-zero daily temperature only during December-March (Kupriyanov 1973).

Figure 2.  

Map of sampling sites in the Kuban River Basin. Map was created in ArcGIS 10.8 software (www.esri.com). Author's data are designated by the red circles, while literature data are designated by yellow circles.

Taxonomic coverage

Traits coverage

Temporal coverage

Collection data

Usage licence

Data resources

Additional information

Acknowledgements

Author contributions

References

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Supplementary material