Together with representatives of the Committee of Natural Resources, Forestry and Ecology of the Volgograd Region, a program has been developed for the preparation of the third edition of the regional Red Book.
The Volgograd region has a high biodiversity: about 9 thousand species of invertebrates and 80 species of fish live here. Currently, the list of red book fishes of the Volgograd region includes the common stonefish (Cottus gobio Linnaeus, 1758), the small southern stickleback (Pungitius platygaster Kessler, 1859), the cutout (Rutilus frisii frisii Nordmann, 1840), the sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus Linnaeus, 1758) - its Don population, the pre-Caucasian trout (Salmo trutta ciscaucasicus Dorofeeva, 1967), the Azov shoal (Alburnus leobergii Freyhof et Kottelat, 2007), the Volga herring (Alosa volgensis Berg, 1913), the beluga (Huso huso Linnaeus, 1758), the whitefish (Stenodus leucchthys Guldenstadt, 1772).
In addition, nine species of invertebrates living in the aquatic environment are protected in the region: the medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis Linnaeus, 1758), the thick pearl oystercatcher (Crassiana crassa Philipsson in Retzius, 1788), the emperor watcher (Anax imperator Leach, 1815), Isoperla diformis (Isoperla difformis Klapalek, 1909), Streptocephalus toivicornis Kessler, 1870, Tanimastix stagnalis Linnaeus, 1758, Branchinecta minima Smirnov, 1948, Chirocephalus horribilis Smirnov, 1948, summer buckthorn (Triops cancriformis Bosc, 1801).
The current state of red-listed aquatic invertebrates and fish is characterized as stable and dynamic: for some species, positive dynamics is observed, allowing them to be excluded from the list, while for others, the categories of rarity are being clarified. In recent years, there has been a tendency to identify both new habitats for rare species and to fix habitat degradation due to changes in the hydrological regime of reservoirs.
The critical factors affecting the condition of Red Book species are: the hydrological factor, the degradation of temporary reservoirs and anthropogenic impact.
VNIRO Press Service