On the habitat and isolation of Gymnocharacinus bergi (Osteichthyes: Characidae)

Abstract

Gymnocharacinus bergi is a rare Paranensean fish which is the only characiform almost lacking scales in the adult. It is endemic and the only species in a peculiar spot — a tributary of the Valcheta creek — in the Somuncura plateau in northern Patagonia, Argentina, over 300 km from the nearest place with a paranensean fish fauna. Besides its geographical isolation, G. bergi occurs within an area with climatic features drastically different from those currently associated with fishes from Neotropical temperate zones. We tested the assumption that water temperature in the naked characin habitat do not agree with the northern Patagonia climate. We also considered the isolation of G. bergi within the framework of an increasing inpoverishment of the paranensean ichthyofauna along a NE-SW axis in the Buenos Aires province. For this we applied a decrement equation used in island biogeography. Our findings demonstrate that the existence of G. bergi in its isolated habitat is possible because of the thermal traits of the water at the sources of the creeks, its temperature being independent of the climate of the area. The chemical composition of water was found to be within the range of common environments in the Buenos Aires ‘pampas’ inhabited by several species of Paranensean fishes. Geographically, G. bergi lives in the last of a series of habitats which show a decreasing number of species correlated with the increasing distance from the La Plata River. Conservation status of the species is briefly discussed.