Biogeography of freshwater fishes from the Northeastern Mata Atlântica freshwater ecoregion: distribution, endemism, and area relationships

Priscila Camelier,Angela M Zanata

doi:10.1590/1982-0224-20130228

Abstract

The Northeastern Mata Atlântica freshwater ecoregion (NMAF) includes part of the eastern Brazilian coastal drainages, has high level of fish endemism and great biogeographic significance. A taxonomic inventory of freshwater fishes from 25 drainages of the NMAF ecoregion and a biogeographic analysis using the Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity (PAE) method were carried out. A total of 192 native species was listed. The PAE method was applied to 24 basins and 37 species, resulting in five equally parsimonious area diagrams. The strict consensus diagram indicates the existence of two main groups of basins throughout the NMAF ecoregion. These groups were denominated: North Group and Central-South Group. The Central-South Group shows a basal polytomy composed by two Groups (Central Group and South Group) plus the rio Itapemirim basin. The North Group is composed by eight drainages from the rio Sergipe to the rio Paraguaçu, the Central Group by five drainages from the rio Cachoeira to the rio Jequitinhonha, and the South Group by nine drainages from the rio Buranhém to the rio Doce. Comments about the species distribution and the fish fauna shared with adjacent ecoregions are provided. We also present a comparison of the hypothesis of river relationships proposed herein with published phylogenetic hypotheses that include taxa relevant to this study.

Highlights

Freshwater fishes offer interesting opportunities to formulate biogeographical hypotheses, the biogeography of Neotropical ichthyofauna is poorly understood
According to Vari & Weitzman (1990), there are three major factors that limit the precision of hypotheses about the historical biogeography of South American freshwater fishes: limited knowledge of species-level taxonomy, inadequate distributional information for most species, and sparse or non-existent data on the phylogenetic history of most supraspecific taxa
Biogeography of freshwater fishes from the Northeastern Mata Atlântica evolution of the coastal drainages of eastern Brazil was provided by Ribeiro (2006), who proposed distributional patterns of fish groups that correspond to general patterns of relationships between the inland and coastal drainages associated with the eastern limits of the Brazilian shield

Summary

Introduction

Freshwater fishes offer interesting opportunities to formulate biogeographical hypotheses, the biogeography of Neotropical ichthyofauna is poorly understood. Biogeography of freshwater fishes from the Northeastern Mata Atlântica evolution of the coastal drainages of eastern Brazil was provided by Ribeiro (2006), who proposed distributional patterns of fish groups that correspond to general patterns of relationships between the inland and coastal drainages associated with the eastern limits of the Brazilian shield. These biogeographic patterns, based on deep phylogenetic lineages as well as closely related species groups occurring in coastal drainages and the adjacent upland crystalline shield rivers, reinforce the historical connections of some of the interior and coastal drainages. We provide comments about species distributions and endemism, a comparison of the hypothesis of river relationships proposed with published phylogenetic hypotheses that include taxa relevant to this study, and a brief analysis of the geomorphological information available for the drainages of interest

Material and Methods

Results and Discussion

Literature Cited