Ichthyofauna of headwater streams from the rio Ribeira de Iguape basin, at the boundaries of the Ponta Grossa Arch, Paraná, Brazil

Abstract

The rio Ribeira de Iguape basin (Paraná State) is highly relevant for the preservation of remnants of the Atlantic Forest. Its high levels of diversity and fish endemism explain the river dynamics promoted by the Ponta Grossa Arch, a geological structure that promotes headwater capture and isolation between the upper rio Paraná drainage, the rio Iguaçu and the rio Ribeira de Iguape. Here, our objective was to provide an unprecedented inventory for headwater streams of the rio Ribeira de Iguape basin at the boundaries of the Ponta Grossa Arch. We found 29 species of fish representing four orders and nine families. Siluriformes was the richest order followed by Characiformes. Nine species presented high abundance of sampled individuals, contributing with 87.8% of the collections. Four species appeared in less than 25% of the sampled sites (occasional), and six species appeared in more than 50% (constant). We identified three non-described species and one non-native (Coptodon rendalli). Two species had their geographical distribution extended and the presence of Astyanax bifasciatus, endemic to the Iguaçu river basin, ratifies recent events of headwater capture between coastal drainages and those that flow into the continent. Studies of biogeographic divisors are necessary to explain the origin and dispersion processes of species in order to direct studies on diversity and preventive management actions. Coptodon rendalli (Tilapia) is an alarming record on the introduction of species in the region.

Do river basins influence the composition of functional traits of fish assemblages in Neotropical reservoirs?

“…From these results we can verify the presence of distinct ichthyofaunas in the reservoirs of the main basins of the Paraná State, especially the set of rivers that flow to the upper Paraná River system (Langeani et al, 2007), such as Paranapanema River (Pelicice et al, 2018), Ivaí River (Frota et al, 2016a), Piquiri River (Cavalli et al, 2018) and Tibagi River (Shibatta et al, 2002(Shibatta et al, , 2007. The same is true for those that drain to the Iguaçu River basin (Baumgartner et al, 2012;Frota et al, 2016b) and the Litorânea basin (Oyakawa et al, 2006;Frota et al, 2019). This difference in taxonomic and functional structure between basins is expected since the sampled reservoirs are inserted in different ecoregions.…”

“…Second, there is a huge spatial congruence of their fish faunas, mainly in the headwaters located in the interior of the Paraná State, which may characterize the upper stretches of the Tibagi, Ivaí and Piquiri rivers as endemic areas (Cavalli et al, 2018;Morais-Silva et al, 2018). These upper stretches presents interesting phylogeographic patterns of the resident fish fauna (Morais-Silva et al, 2018), with notable influence of geological formations of the Serra Geral, or Serra da Boa Esperança, as well as the Ponta Grossa Arch, which by virtue of their ancient origin (Creer, 1962;Karl et al, 2013) enabled vicariant patterns between the various sub-basins of the state (Frota et al, 2016a;Cavalli et al, 2018;Morais-Silva et al, 2018) and, through recent reactivations (Franco-Magalhaes et al, 2010) allowed faunistic exchanges (Cavalli et al, 2018;Morais-Silva et al, 2018;Frota et al, 2019).…”

“…Distribution and phylogenetic patterns of their fish species suggest a close relationship among the rivers that flows directly into the Atlantic Ocean (Coastal drainage) and the adjacent upland crystalline shield that flow into the interior of the continent (Ribeiro, 2006). Recent surveys have revealed a composition of families and genera of similar fishes between the Iguaçu River (Baumgartner et al, 2012;Frota et al, 2016b;Larentis et al, 2016;Delariva et al, 2018) and the Litorânea basin (Oyakawa et al, 2006;Frota et al, 2019), with predominance of Characidae, Loricariidae, Heptapteridae, Trichomycteridae, and Crenuchidae. This similarity appears in our study once there was some functional structure equality between these distinct drainage systems, but not necessarily for the same taxonomic composition.…”

“…Although there is an intimate association with several ichthyofaunastic interchanges mainly between the upper Iguaçu River and the Litorânea basin (see Ribeiro, 2006), both basins behave as distinct riverine habitats with fast and rocky flows, which are local incubators of the diversification and biological specialization (Garavello and Sampaio, 2010;Roxo et al, 2017). Therefore, due the great geographic isolation of its distinct rapids and waterfalls (Oyakawa et al, 2006;Baumgartner et al, 2012), there is a high endemism of the fish species in both the Iguaçu River basin (Baumgartner et al, 2012;Frota et al, 2016b;Larentis et al, 2016;Delariva et al, 2018) and Coastal drainages (Oyakawa et al, 2006;Frota et al, 2019).…”

Inventory of the fish fauna from Laranjinha River, Paranapanema River system, Brazil

“…In the last few decades, human actions have caused numerous environmental changes, which emphasizes the need to know the local biodiversity, in order to reduce harmful activities. To this extend, the creation of inventories contribute to the discovery and description of new species before their extinction, also contributing to the creation of new records, to the knowledge about geographical distribution, the documentation of non-native species, the defininition of biogeographic patterns, and the establishment of suitable conservation strategies (Costello et al 2011, Ota et al 2015, Frota et al 2019.…”