Since 1990s, in paddy fields in Japan, farming methods friendly to organisms have attracted attention from the perspective of biodiversity conservation in paddies. Especially, winter-flooded rice cultivation (WFRC) is said to contribute to the conservation and restoration of organism’s habitats. Nevertheless, there are few studies about effects of WFRC on organisms. Thus, we focused on the oriental weather loach, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, which inhabits paddy fields and surrounding areas, and recently has decreased dramatically in Japan. We studied the influence of WFRC on the seasonal population dynamics and spawning of the loach in two paddy fields in Shiga, Japan. From 2009 to 2011, the study was carried out during May to August each year in Takashima (TA) and Hikone (HI). In TA, we set two paddies, one was managed with conventional rice cultivation (CRC), and the other was managed with WFRC. In HI, we set two paddies, which were managed with WFRC in 2009 and 2010 and were managed with CRC in 2011. We captured loaches with 4 traps in each paddy.

In TA, more loaches were captured in CRC paddy than in WFRC paddy every year. In HI, few loaches were captured in 2009 and 2010, but in 2011, loaches were significantly increased in both paddies. We’ll discuss about these results on the day.