DOI: 10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83zz
title: Data from: Cross-scale anthropogenic threats jointly drive declines in China’s estuarine fish assemblages over the past half-century

description: This dataset contains fish survey data and multi-scale anthropogenic
 threats from three major Chinese estuaries, spanning the years 1959 to
 2021. The data includes metrics on fish community structure (richness and
 abundance) alongside multi-scale anthropogenic drivers.
description: # Data from: Cross-scale anthropogenic threats jointly drive declines in
 China’s estuarine fish assemblages over the past half-century Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83zz](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.q2bvq83zz) ##
 Description of the data and file structure **README: Estuarine Fish and
 Anthropogenic Threats Database** **File
 Name:** estuarine_fish_database.csv --- **1. Overview** This dataset
 contains fish survey data and multi-scale anthropogenic threats from three
 major Chinese estuaries, spanning the years 1959 to 2021. The data
 includes metrics on fish community structure (richness and abundance)
 alongside multi-scale anthropogenic drivers. **Estuary Codes:** * PRE:
 Pearl River Estuary * YRE: Yellow River Estuary * YtRE: Yangtze River
 Estuary --- **2. Data File Description** * **File
 format:** Comma-Separated Values (CSV) * **Encoding:** UTF-8 * **Column
 headers:** Present on the first line * **Missing values:** Coded as NA
 **3. Variable Descriptions** | **Column Name** | **Description** |
 **Unit** | **Notes** | | :-------------------- |
 :----------------------------------------------------- |
 :------------------------ |
 :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **location** | Code indicating the estuary where data was collected. | - | PRE: Pearl River Estuary | | **year** | The year of the observation. | - | Format: YYYY | | **month** | The month of the observation. | - | Range: 1 (Jan) to 12 (Dec) | | **freshwater input** | Volume of freshwater discharge into the estuary. | 100 million m³ (10⁸ m³) | Represents monthly inflow. | | **sediment input** | Load of sediment discharge into the estuary. | 10,000 tons (10⁴ tons) | Represents monthly sediment load. | | **fishing intensity** | An indicator of fishing pressure. | kW | Total power of fishing vessels. | | **SST** | Sea Surface Temperature. | Degrees Celsius (°C) | - | | **SOI** | Southern Oscillation Index. | - | A climate index indicating El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phase. | | **life stage** | The developmental stage of the fish community sampled. | - | **Early-stage:** Early life stages (e.g., eggs, larvae, juveniles). **Later-stage:** Later life stages (e.g., older juveniles, adults). | | **richness** | Number of different fish species recorded. | Species count | - | | **abundance** | Measure of fish quantity. | **Varies by life stage:** | For **early-stage,** this is a density measurement. For **later-stage**, this is a biomass measurement. | --- **4. Usage Notes** * The unit for abundance is dependent on the life stage. Please ensure the correct unit is used when analyzing or comparing data. * Multiple entries for the same location, year, and month may represent different sampling events, replicates, or aggregated data from the original source. * This dataset is suitable for analyzing relationships between estuarine fish populations and environmental drivers such as river discharge, sedimentation, sea temperature, climate oscillations, and fishing pressure. ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * This is the sole publicly accessible location for this version of the dataset.