scholarly journals The influence of habitat structure on fish assemblages in Amazonian streams of Machado river basin

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor David Da Costa ◽  
Vanessa Rocha

Igarapés are Amazonian streams that are extremely susceptible to environmental changes. Due to the rapidly occurring riparian land use changes, and the several impacts these may have on fish assemblages, it is highly valuable to describe and understand the current relationships between these assemblages and the local environmental conditions, especially in barely know areas. In this research, we studied the taxonomic composition and fish assemblage attributes variation in three streams with different riparian conservation conditions: forest, intermediate and pasture. Samplings were performed every two months from October 2011 to September 2012, in three 1st order streams in the Machado River Basin, Rondônia. Fish were collected using trawls (seine net with a mesh size of 2 mm) and dip nets (2 mm mesh) along the entire stretch; the obtained samples were preserved and identified per site type. A total of 2 141 fish specimens belonging to 59 species, 17 families and five orders were recorded. Unlike the intermediate and pasture streams, the forest stream showed a high richness and low abundance. The forested stream exhibited the highest diversity and evenness value, and had low dominance, unlike the other streams. The variance partitioning and partial Redundancy Analysis (pRDA) indicated that assemblage composition was significantly explained by the environmental variables such as: depth, water velocity, pteridophytes and grasses, but not by spatial predictors. The non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis showed that intermediate and pasture streams separated from the forested stream. We concluded that both, the stream environmental variables and fish assemblage attributes were influenced by the different conservation status and land cover. Given the influence of regional processes, which have a pervasive role in local fish assemblages, land use at the watershed scale is important, especially to explain the higher richness and diversity found in forested streams.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Antunes Pessoa ◽  
Matheus Tenório Baumgartner ◽  
Marcelo Percilio Santana Junior ◽  
João Paulo Alves Pagotto ◽  
Luiz Gustavo Antunes Pessoa ◽  
...  

Abstract The use and occupation of land by human population substantially influence environmental variables and fish assemblage in streams. However, there is little knowledge on how these changes affect the ecomorphological structure of fish assemblage in mesohabitats. Therefore, we aim to assess whether the land-use types affect the ecomorphological structure of fish assemblage in distinct mesohabitats. Environmental and ichthyofaunistic data were collected in three mesohabitats (rifles, runs, and pools) of five rural and five urban streams. Twenty-one ecomorphological indices were obtained from the mean of linear morphological measurements and areas of the fishes. Subsequently, the Euclidean distance was calculated, based on the ecomorphological indices, between each pair of species, to measure the ecomorphological distances for the mesohabitats of the rural and urban streams. The results show that the urban environment is more harmful to streams than the rural one, due to changes in the environmental variables and decrease in species richness. The main environmental changes found in urban streams were the decrease in canopy cover by riparian vegetation and dissolved oxygen, and the increase in electrical conductivity and bed silting. Also, there was a significant decrease in the morphological similarity between fish species in the mesohabitats of urban streams compared to rural ones. Therefore, we can conclude that the urban environment leads to the loss of morphologically similar fish species in the mesohabitats, with only a few functionally distinct species remaining.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
JASH HANG LIMBU ◽  
KESHI CHAUDHARY

The correlations between fisheries diversity and environmental variables of Nepal’s Pond are poorly understood. This study aims to investigate temporal variation of fish assemblage at Taruwa Pond in Nawalparasi district, Province no. 4, Nepal from October 2018 to April 2019. For the fish agglomeration, cast net of 4 kg in weight and 3.80 m in length and 22.5 m breadth with 12 mm mesh size was used. In total, 579 individuals representing 16 fish species, 10 families, and 12 genera were recorded. According to similarity percentage analysis, the most contributory species were Puntius ticto (27.92%) followed by Danio devario (12.06%), Puntius terio (9.76%), Badis badis (7.31%), Lepidocephalichthys guntea (5.57%) and Puntius sophore (5.57%). Analysis of similarity suggested that fish community structure was significantly different in temporal variation (R = 0.321, p<0.01). Based on the cluster analysis, fish assemblages were isolated into two distinct groups at Bray-curtis similarity. The Canonical Correspondence Analysis distinctly indicated that the water parameters of dissolved oxygen, carbon-dioxide, depth, and water temperature play an important role in influencing the fish assemblage structure of Taruwa Pond.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nara Tadini Junqueira ◽  
Diego Rodrigues Macedo ◽  
Rafael Couto Rosa de Souza ◽  
Robert Mason Hughes ◽  
Marcos Callisto ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Effects of environmental variables at different spatial scales on freshwater fish assemblages are relatively unexplored in Neotropical ecosystems. However, those influences are important for developing management strategies to conserve fish diversity and water resources. We evaluated the influences of site- (in-stream) and catchment-scale (land use and cover) environmental variables on the abundance and occurrence of fish species in streams of the Upper Araguari River basin through use of variance partitioning with partial CCA. We sampled 38 1st to 3rd order stream sites in September 2009. We quantified site variables to calculate 11 physical habitat metrics and mapped catchment land use/cover. Site and catchment variables explained > 50% of the total variation in fish species. Site variables (fish abundance: 25.31%; occurrence: 24.51%) explained slightly more variation in fish species than catchment land use/cover (abundance: 22.69%; occurrence: 18.90%), indicating that factors at both scales are important. Because anthropogenic pressures at site and catchment scales both affect stream fish in the Upper Araguari River basin, both must be considered jointly to apply conservation strategies in an efficient manner.


Insects ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Da-Yeong Lee ◽  
Dae-Seong Lee ◽  
Mi-Jung Bae ◽  
Soon-Jin Hwang ◽  
Seong-Yu Noh ◽  
...  

Odonata species are sensitive to environmental changes, particularly those caused by humans, and provide valuable ecosystem services as intermediate predators in food webs. We aimed: (i) to investigate the distribution patterns of Odonata in streams on a nationwide scale across South Korea; (ii) to evaluate the relationships between the distribution patterns of odonates and their environmental conditions; and (iii) to identify indicator species and the most significant environmental factors affecting their distributions. Samples were collected from 965 sampling sites in streams across South Korea. We also measured 34 environmental variables grouped into six categories: geography, meteorology, land use, substrate composition, hydrology, and physicochemistry. A total of 83 taxa belonging to 10 families of Odonata were recorded in the dataset. Among them, eight species displayed high abundances and incidences. Self-organizing map (SOM) classified sampling sites into seven clusters (A–G) which could be divided into two distinct groups (A–C and D–G) according to the similarities of their odonate assemblages. Clusters A–C were characterized by members of the suborder Anisoptera, whereas clusters D–G were characterized by the suborder Zygoptera. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) identified forest (%), altitude, and cobble (%) in substrata as the most influential environmental factors determining odonate assemblage compositions. Our results emphasize the importance of habitat heterogeneity by demonstrating its effect on odonate assemblages.


<i>Abstract.</i>—Anthropogenic activities including urbanization, agriculture, and dams degrade stream habitats and are a dominant reason for global biodiversity declines in fluvial fish assemblages. Declining diversity trends have been well documented in many regions of the world; however, fishes vary regionally in response to anthropogenic land use, resulting from complex relationships between landscape variables and mechanisms controlling stream fish assemblages. To test for differences in regional fish response to anthropogenic land use, we conducted our study across five freshwater ecoregions in the temperate mesic portion of the United States and evaluated data characterizing stream fish assemblages from 10,522 locations across all study freshwater ecoregions. Fishes were summarized by metrics describing assemblage structure, trophic groupings of species, levels of tolerance to anthropogenic stressors, and life history characteristics, with seven metrics used for analyses. Natural and anthropogenic landscape variables were assessed across freshwater ecoregions, and we tested for regionally specific influences of percent catchment urbanization, percent catchment agriculture, and catchment densities of dams and stream-road crossings on stream fishes. We used cascade multivariate regression trees to quantify variance explained in fish metrics by these landscape variables after controlling for influences of natural landscape variables, including catchment area, catchment lithology, and elevation of study sites. Results indicated differences in dominant influences by freshwater ecoregion, as well as differences in the levels of anthropogenic land use influencing fishes within and across freshwater ecoregions. For example, urban land use was the most influential anthropogenic land use in both Appalachian Piedmont and Chesapeake Bay freshwater ecoregions, with fish assemblage metrics showing responses at 10% and 1% catchment urban land use, respectively. In contrast, dam density in the network catchment was the most influential anthropogenic variable on fish assemblage metrics in both the Laurentian Great Lakes and Middle Missouri freshwater ecoregions. Also, large amounts of agriculture in the catchment was the most influential anthropogenic land use on fish assemblage metrics in the Upper Mississippi freshwater ecoregion. Knowledge of regional differences in the top contributing anthropogenic landscape variables and the levels at which fish assemblages respond to these variables lends insight into mechanisms controlling stream fish assemblages by freshwater ecoregions and can aid in development of region-specific conservation strategies to prevent biodiversity loss from current and future anthropogenic land use.


2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
Igor Glavičić ◽  
Marcelo Kovačić ◽  
Dejan Paliska ◽  
Dani Laslo

The new video on underwater scooter method in combination with rebreather diving techniques was introduced and applied for visual census of fish assemblages. The presently applied method facilitates deeper visual census studies below 40 m, where they have rarely been done before due to the increasing research challenges with depth. The video on underwater scooter method is also expected to be less disturbing and faster compared to swimming divers. The method was applied in visual census study of fish assemblages from 8 to 50 m depth conducted at two locations in the east Adriatic using 102 video transects. The environmental variables contributing to the variation of the reef fish community in the depth range of the infralittoral and upper circalittoral bottoms were also recorded. Thirty-one fish species were recorded on transects and 10.3% of all individuals were not identified to the species level. The average density on transects was 0.8 individuals/m², with C. chromis, C. julis and G. auratus being both the most abundant and the most frequent species. Three environmental variables, depth, bottom with zoocover and eastern orientation of the coast, were identified as highly significant for species occurrence. Abundance and species richness of fish assemblages showed no significant variation with depths, inclinations, orientations and sites. A significant difference in the fish assemblage structure was found among orientations, depths and inclinations with the gradient change of species composition with increasing depth and with increasing inclination.


2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yzel Rondon Súarez ◽  
Marcelo Maldonado de Souza ◽  
Fabiane Silva Ferreira ◽  
Maiane Jardim Pereira ◽  
Ediléia Amancio da Silva ◽  
...  

AIM: The present study analyzed the spatial variation in fish species richness and composition in streams of the Ivinhema River basin, Upper Paraná basin, determining the relationship between local and regional descriptors of the fish assemblage organization; METHOD: From 2001 to 2011 we sampled 200 stream stretches, using different sampling methods. Local species richness and composition were analyzed using univariate and multivariate methods to detect patterns of variation in the fish assemblage organization; RESULTS: We identified 111 fish species in the streams, and estimated the occurrence of 117 fish species (CIα0.05 = 111 to 123) with lower species richness in headwater streams compared to the lower parts of the basin. The fish species recorded were predominantly of small size, and the mean size increased from the headwaters to the river mouth. The four most common species are widely distributed in the basin. However, 24 species are allocthonous to the Upper Paraná basin, and two species (Chaetobranchopsis australis and Apistogramma commbrae) are recorded here for the first time in the Upper Paraná basin. Altitude was the main determinant of local fish species richness and composition, and a discontinuity in assemblage organization (richness, composition, fish size) was detected at approximately 430 m a.s.l.; CONCLUSION: Streams of the Ivinhema River basin are inhabited mainly by small-sized fishes; and longitudinal variation, interacting with local characteristics, determines the fish assemblage patterns.


2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 526
Author(s):  
L. E. Miranda ◽  
J. M. Bies ◽  
D. A. Hann

Inputs of nutrients, sediments and detritus from catchments can promote selected components of reservoir fish assemblages, while hindering others. However, investigations linking these catchment subsidies to fish assemblages have generally focussed on one or a handful of species. Considering this paucity of community-level awareness, we sought to explore the association between land use and fish assemblage composition in reservoirs. To this end, we compared fish assemblages in reservoirs of two sub-basins of the Tennessee River representing differing intensities of agricultural development, and hypothesised that fish assemblage structure indicated by species percentage composition would differ among reservoirs in the two sub-basins. Using multivariate statistical analysis, we documented inter-basin differences in land use, reservoir productivity and fish assemblages, but no differences in reservoir morphometry or water regime. Basins were separated along a gradient of forested and non-forested catchment land cover, which was directly related to total nitrogen, total phosphorous and chlorophyll-a concentrations. Considering the extensive body of knowledge linking land use to aquatic systems, it is reasonable to postulate a hierarchical model in which productivity has direct links to terrestrial inputs, and fish assemblages have direct links to both land use and productivity. We observed a shift from an invertivore-based fish assemblage in forested catchments to a detritivore-based fish assemblage in agricultural catchments that may be a widespread pattern among reservoirs and other aquatic ecosystems.


2016 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Silva ◽  
É. A. Gubiani ◽  
P. A. Piana ◽  
R. L. Delariva

Abstract Geographical barriers influence species distribution and play an important role in the segregation of fish assemblages. The present study aims to test the influence of a small natural barrier on the spatial distribution of fish species in the Verde River, Upper Paraná River Basin, Brazil, considering two biotopes: upstream and downstream of the Branca Waterfall. We observed the highest species richness downstream of the Branca Waterfall, which also had the highest number of exclusive species. Richness, evenness, and abundance varied significantly among biotopes. The composition and structure of the fish assemblage differed between biotopes, which were characterized by different indicator species, mainly downstream of the Branca Waterfall. Physical and chemical variables and geographical distance between sites were not responsible for the differences observed. Hence, the present study shows that small barriers can also be crucial in structuring fish fauna and play a key role in the segregation of fish assemblages.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabela Martins ◽  
Barbara Sanches ◽  
Philip Robert Kaufmann ◽  
Robert M. Hughes ◽  
Gilmar Bastos Santos ◽  
...  

Reservoirs are artificial ecosystems with multiple functions having direct and indirect benefits to humans; however, they also cause ecological changes and influence the composition and structure of aquatic biota. Our objectives were to: (1) assess the environmental condition of Nova Ponte Reservoir, Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil; and (2) determine how the aquatic biota respond to disturbances. A total of 40 sites in the littoral zone of the reservoir were sampled to characterize physical and chemical habitat, land use, and benthic macroinvertebrate and fish assemblages. The predominant type of land cover near the reservoir was natural vegetation. A total of 29 fish species and 39 macroinvertebrate taxa were collected, including eight alien species. Most sites had intermediate levels of human disturbance, however, high levels of degradation were associated with high proportions of alien species. Disturbances at multiple scales may alter natural patterns and processes, leading to environmental changes and damaging biological communities. Our results reinforce the importance of assessing reservoir ecological conditions at several scales. The study of land use, littoral zone physical habitat characteristics, water quality, and assemblage structure set the ground for proposing actions to rehabilitate and conserve aquatic ecosystems.


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