Abstract
The Amazon Basin occupies a vast portion of northern South America and contains some of the highest species richness in the world. The northern Brazilian state of Amapá is delimited by the Amazonas River to the south, the Oyapock River to the northern boundary with French Guyana, and the Atlantic northeastern coast to Amazon estuary. Despite several expeditions to the Amazon in recent decades, little is known about the freshwater ichthyofauna from Amapá, with records limited to local inventories and species descriptions. This paper presents a compilation of the freshwater fish diversity sampled in fifteen sites covering two major Amapá ecoregions during the dry season of 2015. 120 species representing eight orders and 40 families are reported upon in this work. Eight species appear for the first time in the Brazilian territory providing new information for future conservation status evaluations.
Highlights
At the northern limit of Brazil, the state of Amapá occupies the lower portion of the Amazon River basin at the border between Brazil, French Guyana, and Suriname
Orders comprising the highest percentage of species richness were Characiformes (55%), Cichliformes (16.6%), Siluriformes (14.1%) and Gymnotiformes (7.5%) as expected in Neotropical freshwaters (e.g. Langeani et al 2007; Vari et al 2009; Polaz et al 2014)
Jupiaba keithi is recorded from the Marowijne and Mana rivers of French Guyana (Zanata 1997); we found J. keithi in the Oyapock River
Summary
At the northern limit of Brazil, the state of Amapá occupies the lower portion of the Amazon River basin at the border between Brazil, French Guyana, and Suriname. Amapá harbors a striking portion of the Neotropical fauna and flora in the Guiana Shield. The first is the Guianas containing the Oyapock River that has its headwaters in the Tumucumaque National Park. The second is the Amazonas Guiana Shield containing the Rio Jari and Rio Iratapuru, and the upper portions of the Rio Araguari basin including the large Rio Amapari. Third ecoregion is the Amazonas Estuary and Coastal Drainages that contains small rivers reaching the lower Amazonas such as Rio Cajari and Rio Preto as well as several independent coastal rivers reaching the east coast, including the middle/lower Rio Araguari, Rio Flexal, Rio Amapá Grande and its associated lakes, Rio Calçoene, Rio Cunani, Rio Cassiporé and Rio Uaçá (Fig. 1) (Jégu and Keith 1999)
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