Estuarine demersal fish assemblage from a transition region between the tropics and the subtropics of the South Atlantic

Abstract

The coastal state of Espírito Santo is in the central region of Brazil, where biological productivity is considered low. The objective of this work is to present a current list of demersal, estuarine fish from northern Espírito Santo. This work is based on the compilation of data collected monthly using trawl nets. The ichthyofauna comprises 57 species, within 10 orders and 32 families. The family Sciaenidae has the largest number of species (8), followed by Carangidae (4) and Gerreidae (4). This coincides with what has been found for the Brazilian coast and for the coast of the South Atlantic. It is important to note that the total species richness in the estuaries of northern Espírito Santo is lower than other estuaries of the South West Atlantic coast. Most of the species are widely distributed in the Western Atlantic. Only a small part (14%) of the fauna of northern Espírito Santo was evaluated in regards to risk of extinction, but conservation should be prioritized in the area due to overexploitation of species

Ichthyofauna as an environmental quality indicator of the Bertioga Channel, São Paulo (Brazil)

“…The ichthyofauna of Brazilian estuaries have been studied under various aspects, such as its composition and abundance (FELIX et al, 2006, DIAS et al, 2011, diversity (CASTRO, 2001;CARVALHO NETO;CASTRO, 2008;BARLETTA et al, 2003), assemblages (CONTENTE et al, 2010;ARAÚJO et al, 2013;HOSTIM-SILVA et al, 2013;PASSOS et al, 2013), resource exploitation (BARLETTA; COSTA, 2009), structure and seasonal dynamics of ichthyoplankton (BARLETTA-BERGAN et al, 2002;PORCARO et al, 2014), influence of environmental variables on fish distribution (BARLETTA et al, 2005;BARLETTA et al, 2008), recruitment (BOLZAN et al, 2014), biological and socioeconomic aspects of fisheries exploitation (CHAVES et al, 2003), and also as indicator of environmental quality (VIANA; LUCENA FRÉDOU, 2014). The main hydrographic characteristics of estuaries that influence the fish distribution are salinity, temperature, turbidity and dissolved oxygen BLABER, 1980;BARLETTA et al, 2008).…”