A database of freshwater fish species of the Amazon Basin

Céline Jézéquel,Raúl Ríos Herrera,Raphaël Covain,Francisco Villa,Juan Bogotá Gregory,Rafael P Leitão,Rémy Bigorne,Hernán Ortega ,Gislene Torrente‐Vilara ,Frank Raynner Vasconcelos Ribeiro ,M Maldonado ,Willian Massaharu Ohara ,Jonathan Valdiviezo‐Rivera ,Jansen Zuanon,Fernando Gonçalves Cabeceira ,Douglas Aviz Bastos ,Carolina Rodrigues Da Costa Doria ,Ariana Cella-Ribeiro,Lucélia Nobre Carvalho ,Tommaso Giarrizzo,Luciano Fogaça De Assis Montag ,Takayuki Yunoki,Lúcia Helena Rapp Py‐Daniel ,Tiago Pires ,Carlos Donascimiento,Javier A Maldonado‐Ocampo ,Max Hidalgo,Cleber Duarte,Pablo A Tedesco,André Luiz Colares Canto ,Soraya Barrera Maure,John G Lundberg,Luiz Jardim De Queiroz ,Marc Pouilly,José Iván Mojica ,Saúl Prada‐Pedreros ,André Vieira Galuch ,Lis F Stegmann ,Fernando M Carvajal‐Vallejos ,Astrid Acosta,Koenraad Martens ,Leandro Melo De Sousa ,Edwin Agudelo,Efrem Jorge Gondim Ferreira ,Jaime Sarmiento,Thierry Oberdorff

doi:10.1038/s41597-020-0436-4

Abstract

The Amazon Basin is an unquestionable biodiversity hotspot, containing the highest freshwater biodiversity on earth and facing off a recent increase in anthropogenic threats. The current knowledge on the spatial distribution of the freshwater fish species is greatly deficient in this basin, preventing a comprehensive understanding of this hyper-diverse ecosystem as a whole. Filling this gap was the priority of a transnational collaborative project, i.e. the AmazonFish project - https://www.amazon-fish.com/. Relying on the outputs of this project, we provide the most complete fish species distribution records covering the whole Amazon drainage. The database, including 2,406 validated freshwater native fish species, 232,936 georeferenced records, results from an extensive survey of species distribution including 590 different sources (e.g. published articles, grey literature, online biodiversity databases and scientific collections from museums and universities worldwide) and field expeditions conducted during the project. This database, delivered at both georeferenced localities (21,500 localities) and sub-drainages grains (144 units), represents a highly valuable source of information for further studies on freshwater fish biodiversity, biogeography and conservation.

Highlights

Background & SummaryThe Amazon Basin covers more than 6,000,000 km2, produces about 20% of the world’s freshwater discharge1–3 and contains the highest freshwater richness on Earth4
This is especially true for Amazonian fishes that represent ~15% of all freshwater fish species described worldwide5,6
The database results from the transnational collaborative project AmazonFish (ERANetLAC/DCC-0210) whose purpose was to identify and compile all known information sources available on freshwater fish species occurrences for the entire Amazon drainage basin

Summary

Introduction

The Amazon Basin covers more than 6,000,000 km, produces about 20% of the world’s freshwater discharge and contains the highest freshwater richness on Earth. The Amazon Basin covers more than 6,000,000 km, produces about 20% of the world’s freshwater discharge and contains the highest freshwater richness on Earth4 This is especially true for Amazonian fishes that represent ~15% of all freshwater fish species described worldwide. Low rates of species extinction over several millions of years due to the diversity in aquatic habitats and the stability in favourable climatic conditions are most probably involved. Recent expansion of infrastructures and economic activities are likely to endanger this fish fauna in the near future due to the substantial increase in threats such as habitat fragmentation and river flow modification by dams, deforestation, roads, mining, urban and/or agricultural pollutions, species introduction and overfishing. Climate change will probably exacerbate these threats further amplifying changes in the structure and function of fish communities

Objectives

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Methods