Identification key for fishes from coastal streams of the Atlantic forest of southeastern Brazil

María Angélica Pérez-Mayorga,Fernando Rogério Carvalho,Isadora Francesconi De Oliveira,Cristina Da Silva Gonçalves

doi:10.1590/1676-0611-bn-2017-0377

María Angélica Pérez-Mayorga, Fernando Rogério Carvalho + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/1676-0611-bn-2017-0377

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Abstract

Abstract In recent decades, current knowledge about fish from Neotropical streams has greatly increased, but is still deficient. Here we present an identification key for fishes from coastal freshwater streams from a large conservation area of Atlantic rainforest of southeastern Brazil, including 39 species. Considering that most of these species (61.2%) are endemic to the coastal streams, this identification key will be useful not only for the species recognition of the sampled area, but also for the surrounding coastal region.

Highlights

The Serra do Mar was formed from an uplift process during the Cretaceous, which originated a sequence of 1,000 km of mountains near the newly formed coast
The objective of this paper is to provide an identification key for fishes from coastal streams of JuréiaItatins Ecological Station
Juréia-Itatins Ecological Station represents an important refuge for the conservation of stream fishes, especially Characidium schubarti, Scleromystax macropterus, and S. prionotos that are threatened with extinction in the state of São Paulo since 2014 (State Decree 60.133), as well as Pseudocorynopoma heterandria, Hoplias lacerdae, and Brachyhypopomus jureiae, sampled during other studies (Sabino & Silva 2004, Oyakawa et al 2006)

Summary

Introduction

The Serra do Mar was formed from an uplift process during the Cretaceous, which originated a sequence of 1,000 km of mountains near the newly formed coast. The Atlantic forest is a complex biome that covers practically the entire Serra do Mar, and human occupation has degraded 90% of its area, this biome harbors a significant part of the Brazilian biodiversity (Joly et al 1999); 40% of the 2,000 vertebrate species are endemic (Oyakawa et al 2006) In this region, there are mountain streams with clear and fast waters due to the high slope of the relief, low temperatures and high concentration of dissolved oxygen, and the lowland streams that drains the less steep coastal plain forming meanders with black, slower, turbid and acidic waters with higher temperatures, lower dissolved oxygen concentration and sandy bottom (Por 2004). This can lead to drastic consequences such as changes in reproductive and feeding behaviors of many species (Menezes et al 2007, Ferreira et al 2012, Lobón-Cerviá et al 2016)

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