Abstract
The large estuaries can present long narrow branches called subestuaries or tidal creeks. These types of subsystems are distributed along the Uruguayan coast of the Río de la Plata estuary and are very important as nursery and refuge areas for fish. For the first time, the seasonal composition and abundance of the fish community of the Solís Chico subestuary was studied by using beach and gill nets. Fourteen species, mainly euryhaline (86%) presented a significant representation of juvenile stages. The fish community was dominated by Odontesthes argentinensis, Platanichthys platana, Mugil liza, Brevoortia aurea, Micropogonias furnieri and Paralichthys orbignyanus, similar to adjacent subestuaries. While Micropogonias furnieri and B. aurea were the most abundant species, some other species were rarely caught. A seasonal variation of the fish assemblage abundance was detected, with higher values in autumn showing a positive correlation with temperature. Species that complete their life cycle in the Río de la Plata estuary, some of which are relevant to fisheries (64% of the analyzed species) were captured in the Solís Chico subestuary. The importance of this environment as a transitional system for some estuarine fish species is advised.
Highlights
Large estuaries sometimes present long narrow branches that have their own freshwater supply
A total of 523 specimens corresponding to 14 species (86% euryhaline) and 11 families were caught in the Solís Chico subestuary (Table 1)
Captures were dominated by euryhaline species, such as B. aurea, O. argentinensis and M. furnieri, in coincidence with studies undertaken in the Uruguayan coast (Retta et al, 2006; Acuña-Plavan et al, 2010; Gurdek et al, 2011; Lorenzo et al, 2011)
Summary
Large estuaries sometimes present long narrow branches that have their own freshwater supply. Subestuarine characteristics depend on the incidence of larger water bodies as estuaries and freshwater input from rivers (Uncles and Stephens, 2010) These estuarine environments are utilized by some fish species during particular periods of their life cycle, defining estuarine habitats as temporary spawning and feeding grounds (Able, 2005; Lellis et al, 2008). In the shallow habitats of Chesapeake Bay subestuaries, juvenile stages predominate since they are protected from bigger predators and find abundant food to grow and successfully complete their life cycle in the area (Uphoff Junior et al, 2011) In this regard, subestuarine systems located along the Uruguayan coast play an important functional role for fish that develop their life cycle between these subsystems and the Río de la Plata estuary, including target fisheries relevant species (Acuña et al, 2015). The aim of this study was to determine the species composition, abundance and biomass of the fish assemblage of the Solís Chico subestuary and analyze the seasonal variability
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