Mesophotic ecosystems at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil (South-western Atlantic), reveal unique ichthyofauna and need for conservation

Pimentel, Caio R.; Rocha, Luiz A.; Shepherd, Bart; Phelps, Tyler A. Y.; Joyeux, Jean‐Christophe; Martins, Agnaldo Silva; Stein, Carlos Eduardo; Teixeira, João Batista; Gasparini, João Luiz; Reis‐Filho, José Amorim; Garla, Ricardo C.; Francini‐Filho, Ronaldo B.; Delfino, S D T; Mello, Thayná Jeremias; Giarrizzo, Tommaso; Pinheiro, Hudson T.

doi:10.1590/1982-0224-2020-0050

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…and the fourth new species discovered was the gobidid fish (Psilotris sp. ), a genus classified as "rare" [104]. The results emphasize the need for protection and attention to this unique ichthyofauna found in these deep ecosystems.…”

Section: Environmental Projects and Studies That Agree With Conservationmentioning

confidence: 73%

Burning Season: Challenges to Conserve Biodiversity and the Critical Points of a Planet Threatened by the Danger Called Global Warming

Júnior

Dantas

Souza

et al. 2021

IJECC

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Aim: Due to their biological richness and threat levels, the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, along with other regions located in different parts of the planet, are identified a global hotspots and need greater attention due to the problems generated by global warming. Objective: This article addresses general aspects of the planet's biodiversity, the improvement of ecosystem conservation in Brazil and in the world. Methodology: We carried out an approach on the environmental situation in relation to global warming, the problems generated to the fauna and flora and the conditions in which the biomes of the Midwest region of Brazil are found. Results: The State of Mato Grosso, located in the heart of South America, Brazil, encompasses in its territory the biodiversity of three large biomes: the Amazon, the Cerrado and the Pantanal. The cerrado, a savanna mosaic biome with 38.9% of the state's territory, is home to 30% of Brazilian biodiversity and 5% of the planet's species. In Mato Grosso Amazonia, the main anthropic pressure is caused by exploration, deforestation, crops and livestock. In the Pantanal of Mato Grosso, one of the largest continuous wetlands on the planet, it is marked by peculiarities, such as dry and flood seasons, low fertility soils, difficult access, among others, which restricted its occupation and human interference. Conclusion: Finally, these biomes are areas of relevant interest for conservation and for environmental and ecosystem services, these biomes in the state are under threat and need attention from civil society and government in different spheres. General aspects of the biodiversity of biomes distributed in the territory of Mato Grosso/Brazil, socio-environmental challenges, conservation units and public and private policy initiatives that affect conservation, require active conservation intervention measures to harmonize investment activities with the priorities of biodiversity conservation.

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Section: Environmental Projects and Studies That Agree With Conservationmentioning

confidence: 73%

Burning Season: Challenges to Conserve Biodiversity and the Critical Points of a Planet Threatened by the Danger Called Global Warming

Júnior

Dantas

Souza

et al. 2021

IJECC

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“…However, the challenging logistics of conducting mesophotic exploration in geographically isolated locations such as Rapa Nui has undoubtedly limited knowledge of the deep reef biodiversity occurring in such places. With recent advances in technology, such as remote operated vehicles (ROV), consumer-grade closed-circuit rebreathers (CCR), baited remote underwater video (BRUV) employing inexpensive, low-light digital cameras, and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), scientists now have multiple tools to use for exploring deeper habitats that were not available to us even a decade or two ago (Pimentel et al 2020). These studies remain expensive and administratively complex, requiring both significant funding and effective collaboration in order to be successful.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moving eastward out of the coral triangle and into the South Pacific, diversity within the genus decreases, and the relative proportion of endemic species increases, following the general pattern observed in other groups (Randall 1998;Allen and Erdmann 2012). Most Pseudanthias species occur on MCEs (Rocha et al 2018), where several new species have been recently described (Gill et al 2017;Gill and Psomadakis 2018;Victor et al 2020), a trend in discoveries that results from increased exploration of the deeper sections of coral reef habitats (Rocha et al 2018;Pinheiro et al 2019;Pimentel et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pseudanthias hangapiko, a new anthiadine serranid (Teleostei, Serranidae, Anthiadinae) from Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Shepherd¹,

Pinheiro²,

Phelps³

et al. 2021

Self Cite

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Pseudanthias hangapikosp. nov. (Teleostei, Serranidae, Anthiadinae) is herein described from three specimens collected from a depth of 83 m in a mesophotic coral ecosystem off Hanga Piko, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile. Pseudanthias hangapikosp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners in live coloration and by the following combination of characters: dorsal-fin rays X, 17; anal-fin rays III, 8; pectoral-fin rays 16 (left side of one specimen 17); vertebrae 10+16; scales relatively large, two scales above lateral-line to base of fifth dorsal spine, and 16–17 circumpeduncular scales; gill rakers 11+23; and a slender body, with greatest body depth 3.6 (3.4–3.8) in SL. The most similar DNA barcodes (mitochondrial COI gene) are from Pseudanthias ventralis Randall, 1979 and Pseudanthias hawaiiensis Randall, 1979, with 16.8% and 17.0% uncorrected divergence, respectively. This fish is one of four new species that were documented from a pair of technical dives at a single location in Rapa Nui, emphasizing the high number of undescribed species likely still unknown in mesophotic coral ecosystems, especially in geographically remote locations. Pseudanthias hangapikosp. nov. adds to the Rapa Nui ichthyofauna, which hosts the second-highest level of endemism in both shallow and deep-water fishes.

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“…In the central and western Pacific CCRs are commonly used to record quantitative depth-distribution data throughout most of the mesophotic zone of reefs (e.g., Fukunaga et al, 2017;Coleman et al, 2018;Pinheiro et al, 2019b) and also to collect specimens of new species of deep-reef fishes (e.g., Pyle, 2000;Pinheiro et al, 2019b;Shepherd et al, 2020;Tea et al, 2020). However, there has been little actual collecting of reef fishes using this technique in the Greater Caribbean (Starck and Colin, 1978;Sparks and Gruber, 2012), with somewhat more collecting activity in Brazil (Pimentel et al, 2020).…”

Section: Closed-circuit Rebreathersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Submersibles Greatly Enhance Research on the Diversity of Deep-Reef Fishes in the Greater Caribbean

et al. 2022

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Understanding the diversity and ecology of deep-reef fishes is challenging. Due to intensive and widely dispersed sampling, the Greater Caribbean (GC) fauna of species found on shallow reefs is much better characterized than the fauna of deep-reef species restricted to mesophotic (40–130 m) and rariphotic (130–300 m) depths. Our knowledge about deep-reef fishes is based on ship-board sampling and the recent use of rebreather diving, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), baited remote underwater videos, and crewed submersibles. Submersible research on GC deep-reef fishes began in the 1960s and has flourished over the last decade through research by the Smithsonian Institution’s Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). Here we quantify the contribution of submersible research, particularly the surge by DROP, to our understanding of the diversity of the deep-reef fish fauna of the GC. We compared shallow- and deep-reef fish faunas of three GC sites subjected to DROP research to faunas of three sites without such research. DROP increased the size of the deep faunas at three islands ∼9-fold, and they have deep-reef faunas ∼2–4 times the size of those of the other three sites. Those deep-reef faunas have high proportions of small cryptobenthic fishes, which also represent a major component of shallow faunas. That research increased the rate of discovery (collection) of new species of deep-reef fishes ∼6-fold and accounts for 31% of the deep-reef species first discovered within the GC. Substantial numbers of new species at each of the three DROP islands were not found at the other two. This indicates that other parts of the GC likely harbor many undetected deep-reef fishes, and that the size of the deep-reef fauna of the GC is significantly underestimated. These results show that small research submersibles are versatile, highly productive tools for deep-reef studies. They allow long-duration dives at any depth, while offering unparalleled views of their surroundings to study the ecology of deep-reef fishes (e.g., DROP’s definition of the rariphotic assemblage from fish depth distributions). Submersibles can efficiently collect reef fishes of a broad range of taxa, ecotypes and sizes, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of the regional GC deep-reef fish fauna.

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Mesophotic ecosystems at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil (South-western Atlantic), reveal unique ichthyofauna and need for conservation

Cited by 16 publications

References 42 publications

Burning Season: Challenges to Conserve Biodiversity and the Critical Points of a Planet Threatened by the Danger Called Global Warming

Burning Season: Challenges to Conserve Biodiversity and the Critical Points of a Planet Threatened by the Danger Called Global Warming

Pseudanthias hangapiko, a new anthiadine serranid (Teleostei, Serranidae, Anthiadinae) from Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Submersibles Greatly Enhance Research on the Diversity of Deep-Reef Fishes in the Greater Caribbean

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