The Amazon rainforest has experienced rapid land-use changes over the last few decades, including extensive deforestation that can affect riparian habitats and streams. The aim of this study was to assess responses of stream fish assemblages to deforestation and land cover change in the eastern Amazon. We expected that percentage of forest in the catchment is correlated with local habitat complexity, which in turn determines fish assemblage composition and structure. We sampled 71 streams in areas with different land uses and tested for relationships between stream fish assemblages and local habitat and landscape variables while controlling for the effect of inter site distance. Fish assemblage composition and structure were correlated with forest coverage, but local habitat variables explained more of the variation in both assemblage composition and structure than landscape variables.Inter site distance contributed to variance explained by local habitat and landscape variables, and the percentage of variance explained by the unique contribution of local habitat was approximately equivalent to the shared variance explained by all three factors in the model. In these streams of the eastern Amazon, fish assemblages were most strongly influenced by features of instream and riparian habitats, yet indirect effects of deforestation on fish assemblage composition and structure were observed even though intact riparian zones were present at most sites. Long-term monitoring of the hydrographic basin, instream habitat and aquatic fauna is needed to test for potential legacy effects and time lags, as well as assess species responses to continuing deforestation and land-use changes in the Amazon. Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for PROCAD/ CAPES funding (project no 88881.068425/2014-01), the graduate scholarship for TOB and senior internship scholarship for LFAM to conduct research at Texas A&M University (process 88881.119097/2016-1). The manuscript was improved during the review process by addressing the thoughtful comments from Philip Kaufmann and an anonymous reviewer.

Food webs are not static entities; consumer resource interactions vary in both time and space, which complicates depiction and comparisons of food web structures. We estimated fish assemblage structure and diets in two clear-water streams in the Venezuelan Llanos region (Charcote and Charcotico) and constructed trophic networks (sub-webs defined by fishes as the principal consumers) during four periods of the annual flood pulse. As stream conditions changed from high-water to low-water, we hypothesized that: 1) the piscivore-non-piscivore ratio would increase; 2) dietary diversity would decrease; 3) interspecific dietary overlap would decline; 4) fewer allochthonous food items would be consumed; and 5) food-web connectance would increase. The piscivore-non-piscivore abundance ratio was higher in both streams during the low-water period. Dietary diversity declined as water levels dropped and availability of aquatic habitats and resources declined, but interspecific dietary overlap was not lower. Contrary to our hypothesis, average interspecific dietary overlap increased at Charcote as the dry season progressed, even though dietary overlap among species was significantly lower than expected by chance. We did not find strong support for our hypotheses regarding seasonal patterns of consumption of allochthonous resources and food web connectance, both of which revealed little seasonal variation.Keywords: Aquatic ecosystem, Flood pulse, Predation, Predator-prey interactions, Trophic niche.Redes alimentares não são entidades estáticas; interações entre consumidores e recursos variam no tempo e no espaço, o que complica as representações das estruturas de redes alimentares. Nós estimamos a estrutura da assembléia de peixes e dieta em dois riachos de água clara na região venezuelana dos Llanos (Charcote e Charcotico) e construímos redes tróficas (sub-redes definidas por peixes como os principais consumidores) para quatro períodos do pulso anual de inundação. À medida que as condições dos riachos mudam de águas altas para águas baixas, nós hipotetizamos que: 1) a razão piscívoros e não piscívoros irá aumentar; 2) a diversidade da dieta irá diminuir; 3) a sobreposição alimentar interespecífica irá diminuir; 4) menos itens alimentares alóctones serão consumidos; e 5) a conectância da teia alimentar irá aumentar. A razão da abundância de piscívoros e não piscívoros foi maior em ambos riachos durante a estação de águas baixas. A diversidade da dieta declinou à medida que as águas baixavam e a disponibilidade de habitats aquáticos e recursos declinavam, mas a sobreposição alimentar interespecífica não foi menor. Contrária à nossa hipótese, a média de sobreposição alimentar interespecífica aumentou no Charcote à medida que a estação cheia progrediu, mesmo com a sobreposição alimentar significativamente menor do que o esperado ao acaso. Não encontramos forte suporte para nossas hipóteses relacionadas aos padrões sazonais de consumo de recursos alóctones e conectância da cadeia trófica, os quais revelaram pouca variação sazonal....

High-flow pulses affect river ecosystem dynamics in many important ways including by forming connections between the channel and oxbow lakes. This study assessed the influence of discharge on fish assemblage structure and diversity in the channel and oxbows of the Guadalupe River, Texas. Local assemblages of two oxbows and two channel sites were surveyed using standardized methods to test four hypotheses: (1) assemblage structure in oxbow lakes differs from those in the river channel, (2) α diversity decreases during extended periods of low discharge, (3) β diversity decreases during high discharge and increases during extended periods of low discharge, and (4) species turnover and assemblage nestedness decline during periods of high discharge. We found evidence to support the first three hypotheses. Unsurprisingly, lotic-adapted fishes were observed more frequently in the river channel, whereas lentic-adapted species generally were more common in the oxbow lakes. Species richness declined during periods of low discharge possibly due to harsher environmental conditions or stronger species interactions (e.g., predation). Discharge was inversely associated with both β diversity and species turnover, suggesting a stronger mass effect during high-flow pulses, and stronger species sorting during low-flow conditions. Contrary to our fourth hypothesis, assemblage nestedness increased during periods of high discharge. Finally, we also found evidence to support the hypothesis that species turnover decreased as discharge declined. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of flow pulses for maintaining fish diversity and assemblage structure in floodplain river systems. With additional research involving more sites and longer time series, it should be feasible to define and identify thresholds for flow regime changes that alter assemblage structure and species diversity.

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Signal plasticity can maximize the usefulness of costly animal signals such as the electric organ discharges (EODs) of weakly electric fishes. Some species of the order Gymnotiformes rapidly alter their EOD amplitude and duration in response to circadian cues and social stimuli. How this plasticity is maintained across related species with different degrees of signal complexity is poorly understood. In one genus of weakly electric gymnotiform fish (Brachyhypopomus) only one species, B. bennetti, produces a monophasic signal while all other species emit complex biphasic or multiphasic EOD waveforms produced by two overlapping but asynchronous action potentials in each electric organ cell (electrocyte). One consequence of this signal complexity is the suppression of low-frequency signal content that is detectable by electroreceptive predators. In complex EODs, reduction of the EOD amplitude and duration during daytime inactivity can decrease both predation risk and the metabolic cost of EOD generation. We compared EOD plasticity and its underlying physiology in Brachyhypopomus focusing on B. bennetti. We found that B. bennetti exhibits minimal EOD plasticity, but that its electrocytes retained vestigial mechanisms of biphasic signaling and vestigial mechanisms for modulating the EOD amplitude. These results suggest that this species represents a transitional phenotypic state within a clade where signal complexity and plasticity were initially gained and then lost. Signal mimicry, mate recognition, and sexual selection are potential factors maintaining the monophasic EOD phenotype in the face of detection by electroreceptive predators.