A delineation of Nuclear Middle America biogeographical provinces based on river basin faunistic similarities

Abstract

The biogeographical patterns of the obligate freshwater fishes of Nuclear Middle America, a region that expands from southern Guatemala to northern Nicaragua, are described herein. Historically, three broad ichthyological provinces have been assigned to Nuclear Middle America: the Usumacinta, and the San Juan in the Atlantic slope and the ChiapasNicaragüense in the Pacific slope. With the use of correspondence analysis and unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean cluster analysis of a presence/absence matrix of 76 obligate freshwater fishes, we identified four ichthyological provinces in Nuclear Middle America: (1) the Honduras and Guatemala Caribbean Highlands Province, (2) the Honduras and Nicaragua Mosquitia Province, (3) the Chiapas-El Salvador-Nacaome Province, and (4) the Choluteca and Nicaragua Pacific Province. Differences between provinces in species composition and species turnover between provinces were tested by analysis of similarity, the calculation of beta-diversity indices and an indicator species analysis. We then further characterized each province by identifying the number of endemics and classifying species according to their salinity tolerance. The most striking patterns of Nuclear Middle America freshwater fish distribution are its paucity of primary freshwater fishes and limited numbers of endemics. The four ichthyological provinces are distinct as indicated by the ANOSIM and beta-diversity analysis, although one province showed low beta-diversity values. These results suggest that, despite of the active geological history that characterized the region, there has been limited isolation of species in any given province, and historical drainage connectivity has been high.

The contribution of environmental factors to fish assemblages in the Río Acahuapa, a small drainage in Central America

“…The same pattern has been observed in different studies from rivers and streams in the Central American region and some areas of Mexico, which report species corresponding to these families as the most dominant and widely distributed (Bussing, López, 1977;Angermeier, Karr, 1983;Esselman et al, 2006;Espinoza, 2007a;Espinoza, 2007b;Rojas, Rodríguez, 2007;López-López et al, 2009;Trujillo-Jiménez et al, 2010;Matamoros et al, 2012;Pease et al, 2012). Although, it is important to highlight that diadromous and marineestuarine species constitute a significant proportion of the species richness in this study.…”

“…Lack of studies of freshwater fishes in some countries of Central America has created gaps in information that limit the scope of studies in the region (Miller, 1966;Albert, Miller, 1995;Matamoros et al, 2012). But, recent initiatives have tried to address this problem completing and reconstructing the information of freshwater fish in Central America (e.g., Matamoros et al, 2012;2014).…”

“…But, recent initiatives have tried to address this problem completing and reconstructing the information of freshwater fish in Central America (e.g., Matamoros et al, 2012;2014). In El Salvador, this research represents the first ecological assessment of freshwater fishes and contributes to support future studies at local and regional scales.…”

Continental cichlid radiations: functional diversity reveals the role of changing ecological opportunity in the Neotropics

“…30-50 Ma), earlier than presumed Isthmian dispersal of primary freshwater lineages from South America [19,21,22]. Cichlids and poecillids dominate Mesoamerican freshwater communities, in contrast with the much higher diversity of ostariophysan fishes, largely characiformes and siluriformes, in South America [23,24]. This difference among continents has led many to suggest that secondary freshwater fishes such as cichlids and poecillids filled an 'Ostariophysan vacuum', with the comparatively depauperate ecosystems of Central America providing new and remarkable opportunities for diversification among these early colonists [21,[25][26][27][28].…”

Reproductive life history of Heterandria bimaculata (Heckel, 1848) (Poeciliinae: Poeciliidae) in the Honduran interior highlands: trait variation along an elevational gradient

“…Despite recent gains toward understanding the biogeography of Central American freshwater fishes (Matamoros et al, 2012(Matamoros et al, , 2015, very little is known about the distribution and basic ecology of fishes in the small upland streams of the interior highlands (Miller, 1966, Lyons, 2005, Esselman et al, 2006. Livebearers (Poeciliidae) comprise a substantial portion of the Central American freshwater fish diversity, and are common in most aquatic habitats throughout the region (for example, Matamoros et al, 2009Matamoros et al, , 2012Matamoros et al, , 2015McMahan et al, 2013;Angulo et al, 2013). In fact, poeciliids often are the only taxon of fishes occurring in high-elevation Central American streams.…”