Conserving the freshwater fishes of South America

Abstract

South America harbours the most diverse freshwater fish fauna in the world, and recent estimates point to between 6000 and 8000 species in the Neotropical region. Such fauna has diverse historical origins, either having invaded and diversified in fresh water from marine ancestors during the Palaeogene or being isolated on the continent since the end of the break‐up of Gondwana in the Cretaceous. Taxonomic, morphological and ecological diversity of South American freshwater fishes is dramatic, as are the myriad freshwater habitats they inhabit. Unfortunately, many of these habitats are severely threatened by deforestation, water divergence for irrigation, industry and other uses by humans, hydroelectric damming, mining, pollution and invasive species. Despite these multiple threats, there are very few on‐the‐ground conservation initiatives in South America, although assessments of species‐extinction risks have been produced at regional and subregional levels in different countries.

Ichthyofauna of the upper Juruena river on Chapada dos Parecis, Mato Grosso, Brazil

“…The Neotropical region, that includes the South and part of Central America, harbours the most diverse freshwater fish fauna in the world including 5.400 registered species (Reis 2013), with estimates of a final number between 8.000 -9.000 species (Schaefer 1998, Reis et al 2016. Most of this ichthyofaunal diversity is located in the Amazon basin (Amazon, Orinoco and Guiana basins), in which 2.354 (Albert et al 2011) or 2.411 (Reis et al 2016) valid fish species are included.…”

<b>Detection of Anisakidae larvae parasitizing <i>Plagioscion squamosissimus</i> and <i>Pellona castelnaeana</i> in the State of Pará, Brazil

“…Fishes were transported in isothermal boxes with ice to the Laboratory of Histology and Embryology, Institute of Animal Health and Production, Universidade Federal Rural da Amazonia, Belém, State of Pará, Brazil, and identified in accordance with Reis, Kullander, & Ferraris (2003). The content of the visceral cavity was separated in Petri dishes with physiological saline for parasitological analysis as described by Fontenelle et al (2015).…”

Heterotilapia buttikoferi (Hubrecht, 1881) (Perciformes: Cichlidae),&nbsp;an introduced exotic fish in the upper Paran&aacute; river basin

“…The loss of biodiversity throughout freshwater ecosystems is linked to various factors including siltation, eutrophication, pollution, presence of hydroeletric plants and dams, flood control, over-exploitation of resources, and exotic species (Reis 2013, Britton and Gozlan 2013, Orsi and Britton 2014, Valiente-Banuet et al 2015. Among these threats, the impacts of invasive species are particularly alarming, especially in degraded environments, such as near hydroelectric plants, that benefit the establishment of populations of invasive species , Pelicice et al 2014, Kalous et al 2015, Thomaz et al 2015, Daga et al 2015, Pagad et al 2015.…”