Linking fish ecomorphotypes to food categories and local‐scale habitat uses along a Brazilian coastal stream

Abstract

Fish ecomorphological analyses often deal with several traits simultaneously, making it challenging to interpret general patterns, and have not addressed the longitudinal component of streams in morphology-habitat relationships. We identified ecomorphotypes of fishes and correlated their morphological variation with food, structural/ hydrological variables, and abundances to detect their links with diet and local-scale habitat categories. Eighteen morphometric traits were obtained from specimens collected by electrofishing in a coastal Atlantic stream in Brazil. To test for morphologyhabitat associations, headwaters, middle, and mouth reaches were divided into shorter sampling sites, with the middle reach being classified into riffle, run, and pool mesohabitats. Multivariate analyses highlighted the morphological variations and associated the form categories of 18 fish species with food and habitat categories. It resulted in four combined trophic and habitat ecomorphotypes: (1) benthic AB/lithophilic, composed of smaller to longer loricariids, detritivores, of fast-water, and pebbly habitats; (2) benthic C/lithophilic of very fast-waters, algal and detritus scrapers, with longer intestines than the other benthic species, wider suctorial mouths, inhabitants of headwaters, and riffles habitats; (3) nektobenthic/lithophilic with streamlined bodies, invertebrate feeders, and dwellers of faster-water, cobbly habitats; and (4) nektonic/limnophilic composed mainly by characins, which had strong correlations with terrestrial insect consumption, and lentic/pool, sandy habitats. The morphologyenvironment correlations linked these ecomorphotypes to the broad habitat gradient arrayed in longitudinal and local scales. These results permit inferring the larger form patterns expected for local fish assemblages and emphasise the fish trait categorisation as a possible surrogate to reveal broader ecomorphological associations.