Fish-assemblage structure of the Corumbatai river basin, São Paulo State, Brazil: characterization and anthropogenic disturbances

Abstract

The Corumbataí river is one of the main tributaries of the right margin of the Piracicaba river, itself a tributary of Tietê river. The Corumbataí is part of the Paraná river basin and is regionally important not only because of its good-quality water but also because the local landscape has unique features. This study aimed to characterize the fish assemblage of the Corumbataí in order to provide background data for evaluating its environmental status. For this purpose, within the Corumbatai river basin 4 of the main rivers were chosen, along which 3 sampling points each were established. Twenty-four samplings were carried out during March-July and September-December 2001. Diversity measures were used to evaluate biotic data. A linear ANCOVA model was used to test the hypothesis of a spatio-temporal variation in the fish assemblage, with species richness as the response variable, river order as the factor, and temperature and the natural logarithm of number of individuals as covariates. This analysis showed a spatio-temporal variation in agreement with various concepts, e.g., the specie-area relationship and the river continuum, which have been exhaustively discussed in the literature. When compared to those of the other rivers, data from the Ribeirão Claro river showed a different pattern, probably due to human interference, and exemplifying aquatic habitat fragmentation that might have led to isolation of local fish populations.

Ictiofauna do Ribeirão Limoeiro, Bacia do Rio Cachoeira, BA

“…Dentre os efeitos das alterações longitudinais na estrutura das comunidades, o aumento da diversidade da comunidade lótica em direção a foz, em suas diferentes formas (riqueza, equabilidade, entre outras) é um dos padrões mais evidentes (Súarez & Petrere Jr. 2006). Vários autores têm associado o aumento da diversidade ao longo do rio com o aumento da heterogeneidade de hábitats (Langeani et al 2005), o qual, por sua vez, é relacionado principalmente a um aumento na vazão e na disponibilidade de abrigos (Garutti 1988, Uieda & Barreto 1999, Braga & Andrade 2005, Cetra & Petrere Jr. 2006. Como sugerido por Bojsen & Barriga (2002), a relação positiva entre a riqueza de espécies e tamanho do hábitat não é somente associada com o esforço amostral.…”

Dissolved Heavy Metal Determination and Ecotoxicological Assessment: A Case Study of the Corumbataí River (São Paulo, Brazil)

“…In one of these studies, Jardim et al (12) established acute and chronic toxicity of the Corumbataí River water and sediment to the microcrustaceans Daphnia magna (Straus, 1820) and Daphnia similis (Claus, 1876) in two sampling periods over less than a year. In another study, Cetra and Petrere (9) observed that species richness was the highest in locations with greater vegetation cover and preserved riparian forest.…”

“…The Corumbataí River basin is an important water source located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, between latitude 22°05'-22°30'S and longitude 47°30'-47°50'W, and includes an area of approximately 1.690 km 2 (9). This river was chosen for this study because it is located in one of the most industrialised regions of São Paulo and receives effluents from industries such as textile, ethanol, and chemistry.…”

Composition and structure of fish assemblage from Passa Cinco stream, Corumbataí river sub-basin, SP, Brazil

“…Spatial patterns of species distribution have been addressed in several studies (Uieda, 1984;Garutti, 1988;Uieda and Barreto, 1999;Silvano et al, 2000;Mazzoni and Lobón-Cerviá, 2000;Uieda and Uieda, 2001;Pavanelli and Caramaschi, 2003;Castro et al, 2003;Súarez and Petrere, 2003;Súarez and Petrere, 2005;Castro et al, 2004;Casatti, 2005;Braga and Andrade, 2005;Cetra and Petrere, 2006) that, in general, reported an increase in species diversity since the headwaters to the mouth in fish communities at different locations. The relationship between habitat and community composition was presented by Montag et al (1997), Benedito-Cecilio et al (2004) and Gomiero and Braga (2006), which showed the correlations between habitat diversity and general conditions in the environment.…”