ISSN 2756-3367
African Journal of Ecology and Ecosystems ISSN 2756-3367 Vol. 13 (1), pp. 001-007, January, 2026. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Dominance of Invasive Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Over Indigenous Species in the Kafue Floodplains, Zambia
Chikopela Sikazwe Theresa1*, Katongo Cyprian2 and Hangoma Gordon Mudenda2
1Department of Biological Sciences, University of Zambia, Zambia. 2University of Zambia, Zambia.
Accepted 6 October, 2025
The relative abundance of three mouth brooding tilapiines of the Kafue floodplains, Zambia, Oreochromis andersonii, Oreochromis macrochir and the introduced Oreochromis niloticus were studied between October 2010 and March 2011. This study was aimed at determining whether or not the alien species has dominated the floodplains in comparison to the local Oreochromis species. The floodplain showed a Shannon’s diversity of H = 2.289 and an even distribution of J = 0.73. The relative abundance was compared so as to establish the dominance of the alien species, O. niloticus, over the local Oreochromis spp. Three stations were selected for this investigation. The stations represented the major habitats in a floodplain, lagoon (Chanyanya), swamp (Chilumba) and riverine (Kasaka) habitats. The introduced O. niloticus showed the highest percentage index of relative importance (IRI) of 3.2% followed by O. andersonii (0.4%) and O. macrochir (0.1%). It was further noted that O. niloticus contributed the most to the diversity (H = 0.063) and evenness (0.02) of the floodplain compared to the local Oreochromis spp. Chanyanya had the most number (10 ± 1.8085) of fish samples and was highly diverse (0.5433 ± 0.2117) and the species were evenly spread (0.5320 ± 0.1970).
Key words: Mouth brooders, index of relative importance, diversity, evenness.