A database of freshwater fish species of the Amazon Basin

Abstract

the amazon Basin is an unquestionable biodiversity hotspot, containing the highest freshwater biodiversity on earth and facing off a recent increase in anthropogenic threats. The current knowledge on the spatial distribution of the freshwater fish species is greatly deficient in this basin, preventing a comprehensive understanding of this hyper-diverse ecosystem as a whole. Filling this gap was the priority of a transnational collaborative project, i.e. the AmazonFish project -https://www.amazon-fish.com/. Relying on the outputs of this project, we provide the most complete fish species distribution records covering the whole Amazon drainage. The database, including 2,406 validated freshwater native fish species, 232,936 georeferenced records, results from an extensive survey of species distribution including 590 different sources (e.g. published articles, grey literature, online biodiversity databases and scientific collections from museums and universities worldwide) and field expeditions conducted during the project. This database, delivered at both georeferenced localities (21,500 localities) and sub-drainages grains (144 units), represents a highly valuable source of information for further studies on freshwater fish biodiversity, biogeography and conservation.Scientific Data | (2020) 7:96 | https://doi.collections from Peru 25,26 and by initiating sampling campaigns in detected gaps in Colombia, Peru and Brazil. All these spatial gaps in the database will also be prioritized in future updates through literature and web-based sources checking. Researchers holding fish distribution data from any of the current gaps or under-sampled areas (Fig. 2) and that wish to share these data are welcome to join the project. This information will be included with the complete source, after validation, in the next update of the database.

Threats of global warming to the world’s freshwater fishes

“…We employed the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species database, which provides geographic range polygons for 8,564 freshwater fish species (~56% of freshwater fish species 39 ), compiled from literature and expert knowledge 40 . We complemented these ranges with data from Barbarossa et al 23 , who compiled geographic range polygons for 6,213 freshwater fish species not yet represented in the IUCN dataset, and the Amazonfish dataset 41 , which provides range maps for 2,406 species occurring in the Amazon basin. We harmonized the species names based on Fishbase ( www.fishbase.org ) 42 and merged the ranges (i.e., union of polygons) from the different datasets to obtain one geographic range per species.…”

The combined effects of climate change and river fragmentation on the distribution of Andean Amazon fishes

“…Our study area was defined as the Western Amazon encompassing the entire extension of the six major Andean Amazon basins and contiguous minor drainages (Figure 1). Fish occurrence data were obtained from the AmazonFish project, a collaborative and exhaustive database that includes historical fish species occurrences for the entire Amazon Basin from the literature, biological collections, and recent field expeditions (Jézéquel, Tedesco, Bigorne, et al, 2020). We gathered a total of 9,354 spatial unique sampling points at 1 km 2 resolution for 1,826 fish species within the Western Amazon.…”

“…The Western Amazon region showing the fish sampling points available from the AmazonFish project (Jézéquel, Tedesco, Bigorne, et al, 2020) and the locations of the dams (Anderson et al, 2018) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

A new species of Odontostilbe cope (Characiformes: Cheirodontinae) from rio Madeira basin diagnosed based on morphological and molecular data

“…The rio Madeira is one of the main tributaries of the Amazon river and is known for its high fish species richness, with 1406 species representing 58% of all valid fish species in the Amazon basin (Jézéquel et al ., 2020). The family Characidae, with 635 valid species from the rio Madeira, represents 49% of the species registered for the Amazon basin (Dagosta & de Pinna, 2019); 13 species of Cheirodontinae have been recorded from the rio Madeira (Lima et al ., 2013).…”