Neotropical Siluriformes as a Model for Insights on Determining Biodiversity of Animal Groups

Abstract

We performed an analysis of the descriptions of new species of Neotropical Siluriformes (catfishes) to estimate the number of new species that remain to be described for a complete knowledge on biodiversity of this order, to verify the effectiveness of taxonomic support, and to identify trends and present relevant information for future policies. We conducted a literature review of species descriptions between January 1990 and August 2014. The following metadata were recorded from each article: year of publication, number of species, journal and impact factor, family(s) of the described species, number of authors, age of the authors and coauthors, country of the first author’s institution and ecoregion of the type-locality. From accumulation of descriptions, we built an estimate model for number of species remaining to be described. We found 595 described species in 402 articles. The data demonstrated that there has been an increased understanding of the diversity of Siluriformes over the last 25 years in the Neotropical region, although 35% of the species still remain to be described. The model estimated that with the current trends and incentives, the biodiversity will be known in almost seven decades. We have reinforced the idea that greater joint efforts should be made by society and the scientific community to obtain this knowledge in a shorter period of time through enhanced programs for promoting science, training and the advancement of professionals before undiscovered species become extinct. The model built in this study can be used for similar estimates of other groups of animals.

Update on the ichthyofauna of the Piquiri River basin, Paraná, Brazil: a conservation priority area

“…The species recorded as new in this study account for a total percentage quite near that shown for the entire basin of the upper Paraná River (14% in Langeani et al 2007). This shows that even with the increasing number of species descriptions over time, the knowledge of the actual number of animal species and respective geographical distributions in the area is far from complete (Ota et al 2015). A great part of the new findings in the Piquiri River basin arose from an increased sampling effort for several scientific purposes.…”

“…Recent fish inventories in previously sampled areas have revealed new species (Pavanelli 2006, Frota et al 2016a; consequently, the number of descriptions of new species has increased in recent years. It is thought that a full description of existing species is still far from being achieved (Ota et al 2015).…”

Climate change sensitivity of threatened, and largely unprotected, Amazonian fishes

“…An expert‐based survey was used to assess sensitivity given the limited published information on the physiological and life‐history traits of Amazonian freshwater fishes (Barletta et al , ; Baigún et al , ; Castello et al , ; Ota et al , ). Here, the focus was on sensitivity because all species are likely to be exposed to comparable climatic changes owing to similarities in their geographic distributions.…”

A shocking discovery of threat risks on newly described species of weakly electric fishes

“…The rate at which new taxa are described has been steadily increasing since 2000 in several actinopterygian groups (Ota et al ., ; Reis et al ., ). A similar pattern is demonstrated for gymnotiforms, in which annual rates of species description are increasing at a logarithmic rate (Figure ).…”