The influence of environmental variables on the functional structure of headwater stream fish assemblages: a study of two tropical basins in Central Brazil

Carvalho, Rodrigo Assis de; Tejerina‐Garro, Francisco Leonardo

doi:10.1590/1982-0224-20130148

Cited by 31 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Stream ecologists have been particularly active in research addressing relationships of assemblage patterns with abiotic (Mouillot, Dumay, & Tomasini, 2007), biotic (Macarthur & Levins, 1967), spatial (Peres-Neto & Legendre, 2010), and stochastic influences (Chase, Kraft, Smith, Vellend, & Inouye, 2011). These factors can act independently, sequentially, or simultaneously, and often interact (Carvalho & Tejerina-Garro, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do metacommunity theories explain spatial variation in fish assemblage structure in a pristine tropical river?

2018

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Understanding processes driving patterns of species distribution and diversity is one of the main objectives of community ecology. There has been a growing recognition that local environmental conditions are not the only factor structuring ecological communities, and that large‐scale spatial variation and dispersal also have major influences. The aim of our study was to evaluate spatial variation in fish assemblage structure along the longitudinal fluvial gradient of the Bita River, a nearly pristine tributary of the Orinoco River in the Llanos region of Colombia. Standardised surveys conducted at 34 sites throughout the basin during the low water period in January and March 2016 yielded 25,928 fish specimens representing 201 species. Twenty‐seven environmental variables were recorded at each site, and asymmetric eigenvector maps were used to model spatial variables. To understand spatial variation in local fish assemblages and their relationships with the environmental and spatial variables, two approaches were used. First, we applied the elements of metacommunity structure framework, followed by a variation decomposition analysis that allowed the metacommunity to be classified according to six alternative patterns of species distribution and four alternative metacommunity paradigms. We hypothesised that at a basin scale a major fraction of variation in structure is explained by a pure environmental effect and metacommunity patterns should reveal a Clementsian distribution. At a more regional scale (localities within a river section), assemblages in upstream and downstream regions may reflect different metacommunity processes. Because headwater streams are isolated within the river network, they should receive fewer migrants and may have local assemblages strongly influenced by local environmental conditions and species sorting with one of three possible distributional patterns (Clementsian, Gleasonian, or evenly spaced) would be observed. Conversely, downstream sites closer to the river mouth should be influenced by high dispersal, resulting in a greater importance of spatial factors and the mass effect, with metacommunity patterns nested along the longitudinal gradient. Our results suggest that the fish metacommunity in the Bita River exhibits a Clementsian distribution, implying that species respond to the environmental and fluvial gradient as groups along the longitudinal gradient. These replacements were associated with environmental heterogeneity, especially regarding habitat features. Similarly, the variation partitioning analysis showed that the pure environmental component was higher than the pure spatial component, which is consistent with species sorting. In this paper, we demonstrated that variation partitioning and metacommunity structure analyses provided complementary findings to infer processes structuring fish assemblages in the Bita River. Both approaches identified species sorting as the principal structuring processes in this system. Therefore, strategies to preserve fish diversity...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do metacommunity theories explain spatial variation in fish assemblage structure in a pristine tropical river?

2018

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“…The identification of these variables allows a more reliable prediction of the response of the fish community to environmental impacts (Pease, Lez-Díaz, Rodiles-Hernández, & Winemiller, 2012). While the effects of anthropogenic impacts on the distribution and abundance of stream fish are relatively well understood, much less attention has been paid to the functional traits of species (Leal et al, 2017;Leitão et al, 2018) and even less to the relationship between the functional structure of these communities and ecosystem function (Carvalho & Tejerina-Garro, 2015;Pease et al, 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Trait–environment relationships in Amazon stream fish assemblages

Santos

Benone

Soares

et al. 2019

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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Studies of trait–environment relationships provide important tools for the prediction of the response of biological communities to environmental alterations. The Amazon basin presents enormous potential for the development of research on this type of relationship, given the diversity of both its fish fauna and the aquatic ecosystems this fauna inhabits. The present study investigated the association between local environmental variables and the functional traits of fish in 54 streams of six major Amazonian basins. We identified the relationship between the characteristics of the streams (channel morphology, channel habitat units, riparian vegetation cover, large woody fragments and instream cover for aquatic organisms) and fish traits related to locomotion, habitat use and feeding behaviour. The fish fauna of the broader, deeper and more slowly flowing streams was dominated by nektobenthic species that exploit autochthonous resources such as fish and invertebrates. In narrow, fast‐flowing streams, by contrast, there was a predominance of benthic fishes with varying feeding habits, including periphytivorous and invertivorous species. Narrow, shady streams were inhabited by nektonic species adapted for the exploitation of resources from the marginal vegetation. The results of this study contribute to the understanding of the association between the functional structure of fish assemblages and local environmental variables in Amazonian streams. We hope that these findings will stimulate further research into the natural variation in stream fish assemblages that will ensure the development of more effective management strategies that better protect these important aquatic ecosystems.

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“…For example, Characidium aff. zebra presents a fusiform body that allows it to occupy fast‐flowing environments (Carvalho & Tejerina‐Garro, ). The loricariids Harttia punctata and Hypostomus sp.1, positively associated with coarse substrate and flow, present dorsoventrally depressed bodies, ventral mouths, elongated caudal peduncles and large fins, which are often related to benthic habit (Mazzoni, Moraes, Rezende & Miranda, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Astyanax novae, Bryconops melanurus and Moenkhausia oligolepis are negatively related to both coarse substrate and flow velocity. These are usually nektobenthic and omnivorous species that occupy sandy streams and use a visual foraging strategy (Carvalho & Tejerina‐Garro, ). Knodus cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relative importance of local and landscape variables on fish assemblages in streams of Brazilian savanna

Barbosa

Borges

Dala‐Corte

et al. 2019

Fisheries Management Eco

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Understanding variability in the composition of aquatic assemblages requires a multiscale perspective, since processes operating at different spatial scales (from regional to local) drive the community assembly. Here, the relative importance of environmental variables on fish species composition in streams of the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado) is assessed and quantified at local and landscape scales. The importance of both local and landscape environmental variables in structuring fish assemblages was supported. Local variables explained a substantially higher amount of variance of fish assemblages than landscape variables. However, the shared explanation indicate that landscape variables had a complementary effect. The streams sampled were mostly headwaters at similar altitudes and with similar watershed sizes, so the sensitivity of the fish assemblages, even to small landscape gradients, is highlighted. Maintaining these important instream habitat characteristics close to natural conditions seems to be essential for conserving stream fish species, and for this, the landscape context should be taken into account. Considering the near‐pristine condition of the streams studied, these findings can be used as a reference for further studies addressing the effects of human modifications on stream fish biodiversity of the Cerrado.

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The influence of environmental variables on the functional structure of headwater stream fish assemblages: a study of two tropical basins in Central Brazil

Cited by 31 publications

References 62 publications

Do metacommunity theories explain spatial variation in fish assemblage structure in a pristine tropical river?

Do metacommunity theories explain spatial variation in fish assemblage structure in a pristine tropical river?

Trait–environment relationships in Amazon stream fish assemblages

Relative importance of local and landscape variables on fish assemblages in streams of Brazilian savanna

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