TY - JOUR

T1 - Typology of historical sources and the reconstruction of long-term historical changes of riverine fish: a case study of the Austrian Danube and northern Russian rivers

AU - Haidvogl, Gertrud

AU - Lajus, Dmitry

AU - Pont, Didier

AU - Schmid, Martin

AU - Jungwirth, Mathias

AU - Lajus, Julia

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Historical data are widely used in river ecology to define reference conditions or to investigate the evolution of aquatic systems. Most studies rely on printed documents from the 19th century, thus missing preindustrial states and human impacts. This article discusses historical sources that can be used to reconstruct the development of riverine fish communities from the Late Middle Ages until the mid-20th century. Based on the studies of the Austrian Danube and northern Russian rivers, we propose a classification scheme of printed and archival sources and describe their fish ecological contents. Five types of sources were identified using the origin of sources as the first criterion: (i) early scientific surveys, (ii) fishery sources, (iii) fish trading sources, (iv) fish consumption sources and (v) cultural representations of fish. Except for early scientific surveys, all these sources were produced within economic and administrative contexts. They did not aim to report about historical fish communities, b

AB - Historical data are widely used in river ecology to define reference conditions or to investigate the evolution of aquatic systems. Most studies rely on printed documents from the 19th century, thus missing preindustrial states and human impacts. This article discusses historical sources that can be used to reconstruct the development of riverine fish communities from the Late Middle Ages until the mid-20th century. Based on the studies of the Austrian Danube and northern Russian rivers, we propose a classification scheme of printed and archival sources and describe their fish ecological contents. Five types of sources were identified using the origin of sources as the first criterion: (i) early scientific surveys, (ii) fishery sources, (iii) fish trading sources, (iv) fish consumption sources and (v) cultural representations of fish. Except for early scientific surveys, all these sources were produced within economic and administrative contexts. They did not aim to report about historical fish communities, b

KW - Historical fish communities

KW - written sources

KW - Austrian rivers

KW - Russian rivers

KW - Historical ecology

U2 - 10.1111/eff.12103

DO - 10.1111/eff.12103

M3 - Article

VL - 23

SP - 498

EP - 515

JO - Ecology of Freshwater Fish

JF - Ecology of Freshwater Fish

SN - 0906-6691

ER -