scholarly journals Late Pleistocene fishes of the Tennessee River Basin: an analysis of a late Pleistocene freshwater fish fauna from Bell Cave (site ACb-2) in Colbert County, Alabama, USA

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Jacquemin ◽  
Jun A. Ebersole ◽  
William C. Dickinson ◽  
Charles N. Ciampaglio

The Tennessee River Basin is considered one of the most important regions for freshwater biodiversity anywhere on the globe. The Tennessee River Basin currently includes populations of at least half of the described contemporary diversity of extant North American freshwater fishes, crayfish, mussel, and gastropod species. However, comparatively little is known about the biodiversity of this basin from the Pleistocene Epoch, particularly the late Pleistocene (∼10,000 to 30,000 years B.P.) leading to modern Holocene fish diversity patterns. The objective of this study was to describe the fish assemblages of the Tennessee River Basin from the late Pleistocene using a series of faunas from locales throughout the basin documented from published literature, unpublished reports, and an undocumented fauna from Bell Cave (site ACb-2, Colbert County, AL). Herein we discuss 41 unequivocal taxa from 10 late Pleistocene localities within the basin and include a systematic discussion of 11 families, 19 genera, and 24 identifiable species (28 unequivocal taxa) specific to the Bell Cave locality. Among the described fauna are several extirpated (e.g., Northern PikeEsox lucius, Northern MadtomNoturus stigmosus) and a single extinct (Harelip SuckerMoxostoma lacerum) taxa that suggest a combination of late Pleistocene displacement events coupled with more recent changes in habitat that have resulted in modern basin diversity patterns. The Bell Cave locality represents one of the most intact Pleistocene freshwater fish deposits anywhere in North America. Significant preservational, taphonomic, sampling, and identification biases preclude the identification of additional taxa. Overall, this study provides a detailed look into paleo-river ecology, as well as freshwater fish diversity and distribution leading up to the contemporary biodiversity patterns of the Tennessee River Basin and Mississippi River Basin as a whole.

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.


2008 ◽  
Vol 68 (4 suppl) ◽  
pp. 1119-1132 ◽  
Author(s):  
AA. Agostinho ◽  
FM. Pelicice ◽  
LC. Gomes

Reservoirs have been built in almost all of the hydrographic basins of Brazil. Their purposes include water supply for cities, irrigation and mainly, generation of electricity. There are more than 700 large dams and associated reservoirs in the large rivers of the country. These reservoirs favor local and regional economic development, but they also bring serious and irreversible alterations in the natural hydrologic regime of rivers, affecting habitat quality and the dynamics of the biota. In the impounded area, the main impact is the change from lotic to lentic water, which influences aquatic fauna, including fishes. Impacts of reservoirs present relevant spatiotemporal variations. Immediately after reservoir formation, fish species richness usually increases due to incorporation of surrounding habitats, but richness decreases as reservoirs age. However, impacts downstream of dams appear to be similar or stronger than those that occur within the reservoir. Dams promote discharge control, altering the seasonal cycles of floods. These effects are augmented when dams are constructed in cascades. Therefore, dams profoundly influence composition and structure of fish assemblages. Most affected species are the rheophilics and long distance migratory that require distinct habitats to fulfill their life cycles. Populations of migratory species may collapse or even disappear in intensely regulated stretches. Management actions taken to minimize impacts of dams in Brazil historically considered construction of fish passages, fishery control and stocking. The results of these actions are questionable and/or with clear failures. In this paper, we give emphasis to the Paraná River basin, the most affected by dams in Brazil. We describe some patterns in the alteration and decline in fish diversity in areas influenced by dams. We also discuss negative consequences in the fishery and ecosystems functioning. Finally, we argue the relevance and the success of the management actions taken and present some suggestions to improve conservation of the ichthyofauna in South American basins influenced by dams.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darja Dankina-Beyer ◽  
Andrej Spiridonov ◽  
Ģirts Stinkulis ◽  
Esther Manzanares ◽  
Sigitas Radzevičius

AbstractThe late Permian is a transformative time, which ended in one of the most significant extinction events in Earth’s history. Fish assemblages are a major component of marine foods webs. The macroevolution and biogeographic patterns of late Permian fish are currently insufficiently known. In this contribution, the late Permian fish fauna from Kūmas quarry (southern Latvia) is described for the first time. As a result, the studied late Permian Latvian assemblage consisted of isolated chondrichthyan teeth of Helodus sp., ?Acrodus sp., ?Omanoselache sp. and euselachian type dermal denticles as well as many osteichthyan scales of the Haplolepidae and Elonichthydae; numerous teeth of Palaeoniscus, rare teeth findings of ?Platysomus sp. and many indeterminate microremains. This ichthyofaunal assemblage is very similar to the contemporaneous Lopingian complex of the carbonate formation from the Karpėnai quarry (northern Lithuania), despite the fact that Kūmas samples include higher diversity and abundance in fossil remains. The differences in abundance of microremains could possibly be explained by a fresh water influx in the northeastern Zechstein Basin margin, which probably reduced the salinity of the sea water. The new data enable a better understanding of the poorly known late Permian fish diversity from the Lithuania-Latvia Region.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4915 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-434
Author(s):  
ANANDA CAROLINA S. SARAIVA ◽  
JOÃO MARCELO S. ABREU ◽  
FELIPE POLIVANOV OTTONI ◽  
NIVALDO MAGALHÃES PIORSKI

A new species of Loricaria is herein described from the Turiaçu River basin, Eastern Amazon region, Maranhão state, Brazil, within the Maranhão Hydrological Unit (MHU). Loricaria turi differs from its congeners mainly by the following combination of characters: abdominal plate development confined to the posterior median region, pectoral girdle mostly naked, with cluster of plates near pectoral fin bases; large eyes (minimum orbital diameter 16.2–20.7% of HL and maximum orbital diameter 19.8–24.0% of HL), 214.4 mm of maximum standard length, and large basicaudal plate (16.6–29.2% of HL). The description of this new species strengthens the hypothesis that the Maranhão Hydrological Unit (MHU) is a possible area of endemism for freshwater fishes and contributes to the knowledge of the freshwater fish diversity and composition of the region. 


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1534
Author(s):  
Daniela Giannetto ◽  
Deniz Innal

Due to its peculiar geographical position and its environmental heterogeneity, Turkey represents an important biodiversity hotspot for freshwater fish fauna. Unfortunately, native fish communities of Turkey, mainly from lentic ecosystems, have been massively altered in the past decades. Furthermore, these species, especially the endemic species, are now threatened by several human activities in addition to the global issue of climatic changes. The aim of this paper is to provide an updated review on the current status of endemic fish species from main lakes of Turkey including major threats affecting fish assemblages. By gathering data from the literature and authors’ personal observations, 62 endemic fish species were reported to occur in the considered 37 Turkish Lakes. The presence of non-native species, agriculture activities, climatic drought, and decreasing water level were found to be the threats that most affect the fish communities of the considered Turkish Lakes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick C. Guimarães ◽  
Pâmella S. de Brito ◽  
Cléverson S. Gonçalves ◽  
Felipe P. Ottoni

Abstract: In the present work, we conducted an extensive long-lasting inventory of the fishes, using different collection methodologies, covering almost the entire Pindaré River drainage, one of the principal tributaries of the Mearim River basin, an area included in the Amazônia Legal region, northeastern Brazil. We reported 101 species, just three of them being non-native, demonstrating that the composition of this studied fish community is majority composed of native species. We found a predominance of species of the orders Characiformes and Siluriformes, corroborating the pattern usually found for the Neotropical fish fauna. Similar to other studies, this inventory was mainly dominated by small characids, representing 21% of the species herein recorded. When comparing the present survey with other species lists published for this region (including the States of Maranhão and Piaui), we can conclude that the freshwater fish fauna of the State of Maranhão is probably still underestimated. We reported 41 more species, and one more species than Soares (2005, 2013) and Abreu et al. (2019) recorded for the entire Mearim River basin, respectively. We believe, however, that the number of species presented by Abreu et al. (2019) is overestimated. We compared our results with all other freshwater fish species inventories performed for the hydrological units Maranhão and Parnaíba sensu Hubbert & Renno (2006). With these comparisons, we concluded that our results evidenced that a high effort was put in the inventory here presented. The two works including more species recorded from coastal river basins of the hydrological units Maranhão and Parnaíba were the works published by Ramos et al. (2014) for the Parnaíba River basin, one of the main and larger river basin of Brazil, and the compiled data published by Castro & Dourado (2011) for the Mearim, Pindaré, Pericumã, and upper Turiaçu River drainages, including 146 and 109 species, respectively. Our survey recorded only 45 less species than Ramos et al. (2014), and eight less species than Castro & Dourado (2011). However, it is essential to emphasize that the number of species presented by Castro & Dourado (2011) is probably overestimated since they did not update and check the taxonomic status of the species of their compiled data. In several cases, they considered more than one name for the same species.


Check List ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adán Enrique Gómez-González ◽  
Ernesto Velázquez-Velázquez ◽  
Manuel De Jesús Anzueto-Calvo ◽  
Maritza Fabiola Maza-Cruz

The Grijalva River basin is one of the largest hydrological systems in Central America. Despite its importance, an inventory of its ichthyofauna remains incomplete. We provide a systematic checklist of fishes recorded in the Grijalva River basin based on surveys performed from 2002 to 2015. The systematic list includes 92 species, belonging to 13 orders, 25 families and 50 genera, of which 83 species are native and nine are exotics. This checklist includes three range expansions (Profundulus hildebrandi, Poecilia sphenops and Paraneetroplus hartwegi). Fifteen species are endemic to the basin. The most diverse families are Cichlidae and Poeciliidae with 25 and 23 species, respectively. Secondary freshwater fish diversity is high with 65.1%, the remaining species are primary freshwater (13.3%) and peripheral (21.7%) fishes. 


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