Fishery livelihoods and an adaptation to climate change-induced threats at the Bhomra Wetland: a case study through a stakeholder-driven approach

The main aim of the study is to assess the present ecological status of the Bhomra Wetland concerning its fisheries and associated ecosystem services and to prescribe some climate-smart adaptation technologies in changing climate. Bhomra is an example of a closed, poorly maintained horseshoe-shaped floodplain wetland which aggravates its degradation by both climatic and anthropogenic stressors. For the purpose of the present study, historic climate data were collected from the Indian Meteorological Department. The climatic data show increased temperature (Kendall's tau = 0.60, p < 0.05) and decreased rainfall (Kendall's tau = -0.33, p < 0.05) in the studied region over the last two decades. The wetland is dominated by Cypriniformes species, followed by Perciformes. However, recent data of the year 2020 shows that the annual fish production (i.e., 32,155 kg) from the wetland is below the average production of the last 10 years (i.e., 54,704 kg). Though the species diversity was moderate along with the moderate species richness (i.e., Shannon-Weiner diversity index (H-i) = 1.581 +/- 0.007), higher evenness (Simpson evenness index (E-Sim) 0.995 +/- 0.001) was observed throughout the wetland. The wetland is now at a verge of higher attention in recovering its productive potential, which can be achieved through various institution management approaches and stakeholder's participation by keeping the healthy ecosystem.