ALBERT

Description: Uganda comprises of about 241,000 km2 or 18% is water (Lakes and Rivers, swamps, dams, valley tanks and fish ponds) (MPED 1991a). It is estimated that these waters produce 219,.000 tonnes 'of fish (UFD 1991) major contributors being Lake Victoria followed by Kyoga. Other important producers include Lakes Albert, Edward and George and Albert "Nile. In terms of species composition, Nile perch and Tilapine species represent by far the most significant proportions of the catch accounting for 51% to 39% respectively (UFD 1989). Uganda has a population of 16.6 million people (1991 census) of whom 90% live in rural areas with major occupation being peasant agriculture. Thispopulation is made up of more than 52 ethnic groupings whose., diet is varied depending on cultural influences, geographical location and climate. Per capita fish consumption is estimated ,at 12 kg per annum (UFD 1990).The average diet in Uganda particularly among the poor majority of population is unbalanced, mainly based on starchy food crops as roots and . tubers, cereals and banana. There are indicators of high prevalence of 'chronic malnutrition of children of 12 -56 months (SSALI and SEWANKAMBO 1991). There are also diseases like Goitre, Rickets and Blindness in the adult population caused by nutritional defficiencies. The production and consumption of protein food is still under-developed, presenting a potential to be exploited.

Description: Despite their ecological and socio-economic importance,Lake Victoria's adjoining "swamps" and lake interface areamong the least investigated parts of the lake.The "swamps" a term commonly equated to "wastelands"and the difficult working environment they present incomparison to open water, are major factors for the lowlevel of attention accorded to shoreline wetlands. Moreover, definitions of wetlands highlighted for example in the Ramsar Convention as "areas of marsh, fern, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh or brackish, or salt, including areas of marine water, the depth of which does not exceed six metres" (Ramsar, 1971) were designed to protect birds (water fowl) of international importance. The Ramsar definition, which also includes oceans, has till recently been of limited use for Lake Victoria, because itdoes not fully recognise wetlands in relation to other public concerns such as water quality, biodiversity and the tisheries that are of higher socioeconomic priority than waterfowl. Prior to 1992, fishery research on Lake Victoria included studies of inshore shallow habitats of the lake without specific reference to distance or the type of vegetation at the shore. Results of these studies also conveniently relied heavily on trawl and gill net data from the 5-10 m depth zones as the defining boundary of shallow inshore habitats.In Lake Victoria, such a depth range can be at least one kilometre from the lake interface and by the 10m depth contour, habitats are in the sub-littoral range. Findings from these studies could thus not be used to make direct inferences on the then assumed importance of Lake Victoria wetlands in general.

Description: Invertebrates are some of the key food items for fish diets. They thus form an important fish food environment upon which the fisheries thrives in terms of production through dietary support. Invertebrates communities of Lakes Albert and Kyoga have been evaluated and considered the implications for diets and production of commercial fishes.

Description: Knowledge of how biota can be used to monitor ecosystem health and assess impacts by human alterations such as land use and management measures taken at different spatial scales is critical for improving the ecological quality of aquatic ecosystems. This knowledge in Uganda is very limited or unavailable yet it is needed to better understand the relationship between environmental factors at different spatial scales, assemblage structure and taxon richness of aquatic ecosystems. In this study, benthic invertebrate community patterns were sampled between June 2001 and April 2002 and analysed in relation to water quality and catchment land use patterns from three shallow near-shore bays characterized by three major land uses patterns: urban (Murchison Bay); semi-urban (Fielding Bay); rural (Hannington Bay). Variations in density and guild composition of benthic macro-invertebrates communities were evaluated using GIS techniques along an urban-rural gradient of land use and differences in community composition were related to dissolved oxygen and conductivity variation. Based on numerical abundance and tolerance values, Hilsenhoff's Biotic Index ofthe invertebrates was determined in order to evaluate the relative importance of water quality in the three bays. Murchison Bay supported a relatively taxa-poor invertebrate assemblage mainly comprising stenotopic and eurytopic populations of pollution-tolerant groups such as worms and Chironomus sp. with an overall depression in species diversity. On the contrary, the communities in Fielding and Hannington bays were quite similar and supported distinct and diverse assemblages including pollution-intolerant forms such as Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Odonata (dragonflies). The Hilsenhoff Biotic Index in Murchison Bay was 6.53. (indicating poor water quality) compared to 6.34 for Fielding Bay and 5.78 for Hannington Bay (both indicating fair water quality). The characterization of maximum taxa richness balanced among taxa groups with good representation of intolerant individuals in Hannington Bay relative to Fielding and Murchison bays concludes that the bay is the cleanest in terms of water quality. Contrary, the dominance of few taxa with many tolerant iqdividuals present in Murchison Bay indicates that the bay is degraded in terms of water quality. These result are ofimportance when planning conservation and management measures, implementing large-scale biomonitoring programs, and predicting how human alterations (e.g nutrient loading) affect water ecosystems. Therefore, analysis of water quality in relation to macro-invertebrate community composition patterns as bio-indicators can lead to further understanding of their responses to environmental manipulations and perturbations.