# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Fish Biology and Ecology Studies Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/fish-biology-and-ecology-studies/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Fish Biology and Ecology Studies research in the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 for Fish Biology and Ecology Studies is dominated by research on the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), alongside deep physiological mechanisms and evolutionary analyses. The field is rapidly shifting toward advanced genetic methodologies like admixture analysis and molecular phylogeny, while significantly emphasizing the ecological impacts of dams and hydropower.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Fish Biology and Ecology Studies |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 6,537 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Oreochromis niloticus, physiology and nutrition, molecular phylogeny, environmental impacts |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 16–143 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved July 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Hydropower impacts on riverine biodiversity | Fengzhi He, Christiane Zarfl, Klement Tockner, Julian D. Olden, Zilca Campos, Fábio Muniz, Jens‐Christian Svenning, Sonja C. Jähnig | Fengzhi He | University of Tübingen, Germany | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 143 | 10.1038/s43017-024-00596-0 |
| 2 | Global shark fishing mortality still rising despite widespread regulatory change | Boris Worm, Sara Orofino, Echelle S Burns, Nidhi G D'Costa, Leonardo Manir Feitosa, Maria L D Palomares, Laurenne Schiller, Darcy Bradley | Boris Worm | Dalhousie University, Canada | Science | 54 | 10.1126/science.adf8984 |
| 3 | Fishes of the upper rio Paraná basin: diversity, biogeography and conservation | Fernando César Paiva Dagosta, Maristela Sayure Monção, Bárbara Akemi Nagamatsu, Carla Simone Pavanelli, Fernando Rogério Carvalho, Flávio César Thadeo de Lima, Francisco Langeani, Guilherme Moreira Dutra, Renata Rúbia Ota, Thomaz Jefrey Seren, Victor Alberto Tagliacollo., Naércio A. Menezes, Heraldo A. Britski, Mário C. C. de Pinna | Fernando César Paiva Dagosta | Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados, Brazil | Neotropical Ichthyology | 37 | 10.1590/1982-0224-2023-0066 |
| 4 | Increase in the Abundance of Invasive Fish Species in the Ciliwung River, DKI Jakarta and West Java Provinces | Noer Sarifah Ainy, Iqbal Mujadid, Nestiyanto Hadi, Lutfiralda Sjahfirdi | Noer Sarifah Ainy | STKIP Arrahmaniyah, ID | ADI Journal on Recent Innovation (AJRI) | 33 | 10.34306/ajri.v6i1.1060 |
| 5 | Phylogenomics of Characidae, a hyper-diverse Neotropical freshwater fish lineage, with a phylogenetic classification including four families (Teleostei: Characiformes) | Bruno Francelino de Melo, Rafaela Priscila Ota, Ricardo C. Benine, Fernando Rogério Carvalho, Flávio César Thadeo de Lima, George Mendes Taliaferro Mattox, Camila S. Souza, Tiago C. Faria, Lais Reia, Fábio Fernandes Roxo, Martha Valdéz-Moreno, Thomas J. Near, Cláudio Oliveira | Bruno Francelino de Melo | American Museum of Natural History, United States | Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society | 32 | 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae101 |
| 6 | Dams trigger exponential population declines of migratory fish | Zhenli Huang, Haiying Li | Zhenli Huang | China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, China | Science Advances | 25 | 10.1126/sciadv.adi6580 |
| 7 | Checklist of the species of the Order Characiformes (Teleostei: Ostariophysi) | Mônica Toledo‐Piza, Eduardo G. Baena, Fernando César Paiva Dagosta, Naércio A. Menezes, Marcelo Ândrade, Ricardo C. Benini, Vinicius de Araújo Bertaco, José Luís Olivan Birindelli, G. Boden, Paulo Andreas Buckup, Priscila Camelier, Fernando Rogério Carvalho, Ricardo Macedo Corrêa e Castro, Junior Chuctaya, Eva Decru, Eddy Derijst, Casey B. Dillman, Katiane M. Ferreira, D. Geelhand de Merxem, Victor Giovannetti, Alice Hirschmann, Michel Jégu, Fernando Camargo Jerep, Francisco Langeani, Flávio César Thadeo de Lima, Carlos Alberto Santos de Lucena, Zilda Margarete S. de Lucena, Luiz Roberto Malabarba, Maria Claudia Malabarba, Manoela Marinho, Kleber Mathubara, George Mendes Taliaferro Mattox, Bruno Francelino de Melo, Tuur Moelants, Cristiano R. Moreira, T. Musschoot, André Netto-Ferreira, Rafaela Priscila Ota, Osvaldo Takeshi Oyakawa, Carla Simone Pavanelli, Roberto Esser dos Reis, Osmar Souza dos Santos, Jane Piton Serra Sanches, Gabriel de Souza da Costa e Silva, Cárlison Silva‐Oliveira, Rosana Souza-Lima, Richard P. Vari, Angela Maria Zanata | Mônica Toledo‐Piza | Unknown, Unknown | Neotropical Ichthyology | 23 | 10.1590/1982-0224-2023-0086 |
| 8 | The influence of climate changes on heavy metals accumulation in Alosa immaculata from the Danube River Basin | Nina-Nicoleta Lazăr, Ira-Adeline Simionov, Ștefan-Mihai Petrea, Cătălina Iticescu, Puiu-Lucian Georgescu, Floricel Dima, Alina Antache | Ira-Adeline Simionov | "Dunărea de Jos" University of Galati, Romania | Marine Pollution Bulletin | 20 | 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116145 |
| 9 | Overfishing and climate change elevate extinction risk of endemic sharks and rays in the southwest Indian Ocean hotspot | Riley A Pollom, Jessica Cheok, Nathan Pacoureau, Katie S Gledhill, Peter M Kyne, David A Ebert, Rima W Jabado, Katelyn B Herman, Rhett H Bennett, Charlene da Silva, Stela Fernando, Baraka Kuguru, Robin W Leslie, Meaghen E McCord, Melita Samoilys, Henning Winker, Sean T Fennessy, Caroline M Pollock, Cassandra L Rigby, Nicholas K Dulvy | Riley A Pollom | Simon Fraser University, Canada | PLoS ONE | 19 | 10.1371/journal.pone.0306813 |
| 10 | Diet and habitat as determinants of intestine length in fishes | Maria J Duque-Correa, Kendall D Clements, Carlo Meloro, Fabrizia Ronco, Anna Boila, Adrian Indermaur, Walter Salzburger, Marcus Clauss | Marcus Clauß | University of Zurich, Switzerland | Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries | 18 | 10.1007/s11160-024-09853-3 |
| 11 | Threats of dams to the persistence of the world's freshwater fishes | Tamara Keijzer, Valerio Barbarossa, Alexandra Marques, Juan D. Carvajal‐Quintero, Mark A. J. Huijbregts, Aafke M. Schipper | Tamara Keijzer | PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency  The Hague The Netherlands, Netherlands | Global Change Biology | 18 | 10.1111/gcb.17166 |
| 12 | Genetic diversity and population structure of farmed and wild Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in Uganda: The potential for aquaculture selection and breeding programs | Diego Robledo, Joel Ogwang, Ezra Byakora, Jennifer Nascimento Schulze, Katali Kirungi Benda, Clemence Fraslin, Sarah Salisbury, Moses Solimo, Johnson Francis Mayega, Beine Peter, Charles Masembe, Ross Houston, Robert Mukiibi | Robert Mukiibi | University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom | Genomics | 17 | 10.1016/j.ygeno.2024.110781 |
| 13 | Forecasting of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) production in Bangladesh using ARIMA model | Mohammad Abu Baker Siddique, Balaram Mahalder, Mohammad Mahfujul Haque, Mobin Hossain Shohan, Jatish Chandra Biswas, Shahrina Akhtar, A K Shakur Ahammad | A. K. Shakur Ahammad | Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh | Heliyon | 17 | 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27111 |
| 14 | A global analysis of the introduction pathways and characteristics associated with non-native fish species introduction, establishment, and impacts | Camille Bernery, Céline Bellard, Franck Courchamp, Sébastien Brosse, Boris Leroy | Camille Bernery | CNRS, France | Ecological Processes | 17 | 10.1186/s13717-024-00495-8 |
| 15 | The effects of nano-curcumin on growth performance, feed utilization, blood biochemistry, disease resistance, and gene expression in European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) fingerlings | Samyah D. Jastaniah, Ahd A. Mansour, Ayat H. Al-Tarawni, Ehab El‐Haroun, Mohammad Bodrul Munir, Sultan Ayesh Mohammed Saghir, Zulhisyam Abdul Kari, Guillermo Téllez‐Isaías, Walter Bottje, Ammar AL‐Farga, El‐Sayed Hemdan Eissa | El‐Sayed Hemdan Eissa | King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia | Aquaculture Reports | 17 | 10.1016/j.aqrep.2024.102034 |
| 16 | Diversity of fishes along the coast of Türkiye | Murat Bilecenoğlu | Murat Bilecenoğlu | Unknown, Unknown | TURKISH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY | 17 | 10.55730/1300-0179.3197 |
| 17 | Distribution of fish larvae and juveniles on salinity in an estuary predicted from remote sensing and fuzzy logic approach | Anh Ngoc Thi, Tuyet Anh Thi, Hau Duc Tran | Anh Ngoc Thi, Tuyet Anh Thi, Hau Duc Tran | Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam | Aquatic Ecology | 17 | 10.1007/s10452-024-10119-0 |
| 18 | Ancient and Recent Hybridization in the <i>Oreochromis</i> Cichlid Fishes | Adam G Ciezarek, Tarang K Mehta, Angela Man, Antonia G P Ford, Geraldine Dorcas Kavembe, Nasser Kasozi, Benjamin P Ngatunga, Asilatu H Shechonge, Rashid Tamatamah, Dorothy Wanja Nyingi, Avner Cnaani, Titus C Ndiwa, Federica Di Palma, George F Turner, Martin J Genner, Wilfried Haerty | Adam G Ciezarek | Earlham Institute, United Kingdom | Molecular Biology and Evolution | 16 | 10.1093/molbev/msae116 |
| 19 | Assessment of the role of mangroves for Periophthalmus modestus applying machine learning and remote sensing: a case study in a large estuary from Vietnam | Anh Ngoc Thi, Tuyet Anh Thi, Long Van Pham, Hau Duc Tran | Hau Duc Tran | Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam | Aquatic Ecology | 16 | 10.1007/s10452-024-10111-8 |
| 20 | Sustainable captive breeding practices for native Indonesian freshwater fish | Darmawan Setia Budi, Agus Priyadi, Asep Permana, Muh Herjayanto, Jacques Slembrouck, Ahmad Shofy Mubarak, Imam Mustofa | Imam Mustofa | Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia | Animal Reproduction Science | 16 | 10.1016/j.anireprosci.2024.107623 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

In the Class of 2026 for Fish Biology and Ecology Studies, research on the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) dominates the informative topics, reflecting its immense global importance in aquaculture and environmental studies. Secondary defining topics cluster around physiology and nutrition, highlighted by studies on specific growth rate, enzymatic activities like amylase and lipase, and oxidative stress markers such as catalase and superoxide dismutase. Another major theme centers on evolutionary and phylogenetic research, encompassing admixture analysis, molecular phylogeny, and studies of specific lineages like Elasmobranchii and Teleostei. Additionally, anthropogenic impacts and environmental management are prominent, evidenced by research on dams, hydropower, and flow alteration, alongside broad-scale analytical tools like remote sensing and FAO capture production data.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

The shift from 2025 to 2026 reveals a pronounced surge in studies focusing on specific physiological and ecological mechanisms. Oreochromis niloticus saw the most substantial growth, more than doubling in normalized frequency. Novel emerging topics that had no presence in the top tier of 2025 include admixture analysis, impacts of dams and hydropower, and molecular phylogeny. This indicates a methodological pivot towards advanced genetic and evolutionary analyses. We also observe a rising emphasis on reproductive strategies, with matrotrophy, oviparity, and viviparity emerging as key research areas. Conversely, traditional topics like general specific growth rate experienced a slight decline in relative frequency, suggesting that researchers are moving toward more specialized molecular, evolutionary, and environmental disruption assessments rather than generalized physiological metrics.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Fish Biology and Ecology Studies Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/fish-biology-and-ecology-studies/2026. Accessed 2026-07-21.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
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