Three-Gorges Dam: Risk to Ancient Fish THE HUGE THREE-GORGES DAM (TGD) OF THE

Yangtze River is going to demonstrate the mighty power of humanity to change and fragment an area of about 58,000 km2 with the formation of a huge reservoir of 1080 km2. It is expected to exert disastrous influ-ences on many terrestrial plants and animals, as discussed by J. Wu et al. in their Policy Forum “Three-Gorges Dam— experiment in habitat fragmentation? ” (23 May, p. 1239). However, loss of biodiver-sity will take place not only terrestrially but also aquatically. More attention should be given to ancient endemic fish species that are extremely vulnerable. The Yangtze River basin is one of th