A new inventory for fishes of headwater streams from the rio das Cinzas and rio Itararé basins, rio Paranapanema system, Paraná, Brazil

Abstract

The rio das Cinzas and rio Itararé basins are important tributaries of the rio Paranapanema, a major left-bank tributary of the upper rio Paraná basin. The upper reaches of both drainages intersect the northern portion of the APA Escarpa Devoniana (Devonian Escarpment Environment Protection Area, EPA), an area considered crucial for the preservation of biodiversity. This study aimed to provide an ichthyofaunistic inventory for headwater streams of the rio das Cinzas and rio Itararé basins, both within and off of the borders of the EPA, increasing the knowledge about the species already known from streams in the rio Paranapanema system. We found 32 fish species, representing five orders and 12 families. Siluriformes was the richest order followed by Characiformes. Ten species presented high abundance of sampled individuals, contributing with 85.0% of all specimens. Most species were classified as occasional (captured in less than 25% of the samples) and only two species were classified as constant (captured in more than 50% of samples), which may reflect the altitudinal gradient. We did not record any introduced species in the sampled streams, reinforcing the need of, at least, maintaining the original area of the EPA. We expanded the geographic distribution of Astyanax bifasciatus to the upper rio Paraná system, confirming the cases of faunal exchange among several drainage systems in the limits of the Ponta Grossa Arch. Finally, we identified three putatively undescribed species that show a large biodiversity knowledge shortfall for the region studied.

Composition and distribution of fishes from the Perequê-Açu river basin, Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, Southeastern Brazil

“…Two species of Phalloceros occur in allopatry in this basin, with a clear preference of P. harpagos ( Figure 3R) for headwaters and bedside environments, and P. anisophallos (Figure 3S, 3T), the most abundant species in the basin, which is a very tolerant species (Mazzoni et al 2011), found in lowland environments with or without marginal vegetation. P. harpagos was one of the most abundant species in headwater streams from Paranapanema basin (Frota et al 2020) or in São José dos Dourados and Turvo-Grande basins (Casatti et al 2012) where, despite the large area collected, only one species of this genus was recorded.…”

Selecting areas with rare and restricted fish species in mountain streams of Southern Brazil

“…In the Paraná Basin, the Serra Geral (also known as Serra da Esperança or Serra da Boa Esperança in Paraná State) is a mountain range that originated during the Cretaceous period, and is included in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot (Myers et al, 2000). The Serra Geral and the Ponta Grossa Arch have been linked to the diversification and mixing of fish communities of adjacent river basins, suggesting vicariant processes and/or faunal interchange (Ribeiro, 2006; Frota et al, 2016a; Frota et al, 2016b; Morais‐Silva et al, 2018; Frota et al, 2019; Frota et al, 2020) in this critical area for fish conservation (Affonso et al, 2015; Frota et al, 2016a; Frota et al, 2016b; Cavalli et al, 2018; Alves et al, 2019; Frota et al, 2019; Frota et al, 2020). The mountain streams sampled are located at the boundaries of the Serra da Esperança and the Ponta Grossa Arch, mainly in the headwaters of the Das Cinzas, Itararé, Ivaí, Piquiri, and Tibagi river basins (in the Upper Paraná River system; Upper Parana ecoregion, Abell et al, 2008), the Iguaçu River basin (Iguassu ecoregion, Abell et al, 2008), and the Ribeira de Iguape River basin (Ribeira de Iguape ecoregion, Abell et al, 2008) (Figure 1).…”

“…After a few days, the fish were transferred to 70% ethanol in the laboratory and deposited in the Ichthyological Collection of the Research Centre in Limnology, Ichthyology, and Aquaculture (NUP, Maringá). The identification of taxa was based on original descriptions or study material from the streams of the following basins: Das Cinzas River (Frota et al, 2020; Galindo et al, 2020); Iguaçu River (Baumgartner et al, 2012; Mezzaroba et al, 2020); Itararé River (Cetra et al, 2016; Frota et al, 2020); Ivaí River (Frota et al, 2016a); Piquiri River (Cavalli et al, 2018); Ribeira de Iguape River (Oyakawa et al, 2006; Frota et al, 2019); and Tibagi River (Hoffmann, Nascimento & Shibatta, 2015; Claro‐Garcia, Assega & Shibatta, 2018). In addition, several identifications were confirmed by experts in each taxonomic group.…”

Occurrence of Arcellidae (Amorphea, Arcellinida) in a coastal stream in the State of Rio de Janeiro

“…Knowledge about species richness and composition of an environment represents the most important attributes when studying a biological system (Ricklefs & Schluter, 1993). It is known that there are numerous studies aimed at describing the composition and focused on the taxonomy of many groups of organisms (Frota, Ota, Deprá, Ganassin, & Graça, 2020;Pacifico, Almeda, Carmo, & Fidanza, 2019). However, protists especially planktonics, are under-explored groups today (Lansac-Tôha, Bonecker, Velho & Lima, 2004).…”