Stream ichthyofauna of the Tapajós National Forest, Pará, Brazil.

Cárlison Silva-Oliveira,André Luiz Colares Canto,Frank Raynner Vasconcelos Ribeiro

doi:10.3897/zookeys.580.6659

Abstract

The fish fauna of freshwater streams in the Tapajos National Forest was surveyed and a list of species is presented. The sampling was conducted from 2012 to 2013 during the dry season. Fish were collected with dip nets and seine nets in 22 streams of 1st to 3rd order. Sampling resulted in 3035 specimens belonging to 117 species, 27 families and six orders. The most abundant species were Bryconops aff. melanurus, Hemigrammus belottii, and Hemigrammus analis. Four undescribed species were recognized, one of which is known only from the area of this study. A significant dissimilarity was observed in fish species composition among drainage systems. This is the first survey of the stream ichthyofauna in the Tapajós National Forest, and it presents relevant information for future studies and decision-making in the management and conservation of fish fauna in this conservation unit.

Highlights

The Neotropical region has the richest and most diverse fauna of freshwater fishes in the world, reaching a number of more than 5400 valid species (Reis 2013) and estimates of the final number of more than 8000 species (Reis et al 2016)
The fish fauna was composed of 59 species of Characiformes (50.4%), 28 of Siluriformes (23.9%), 15 of Perciformes (12.8%), 11 of Gymnotiformes (9.4%), three of Cyprinodontiformes (2.6%) and one of Synbranchiformes (0.9%) (Fig. 3)
The fish fauna of Tapajós National Forest, as well as the lower Tapajós River, is one of the most understudied and undersampled among aquatic systems in the Amazon drainage and so far all species found during the survey represent new records for the studied area

Summary

Introduction

The Neotropical region has the richest and most diverse fauna of freshwater fishes in the world, reaching a number of more than 5400 valid species (Reis 2013) and estimates of the final number of more than 8000 species (Reis et al 2016). The highest species richness is located in the Amazon River basin (Santos and Ferreira 1999; Reis et al 2003), where the number of fish species remains undefined, those inhabiting small streams. Several studies have contributed to our knowledge of the Neotropical fish fauna in recent years Most noteworthy are those aimed at surveying the ichthyofauna (e.g. De Oliveira et al 2009; Barros et al 2011; Raiol et al 2012; Pedroza et al 2012), studies with focus on ecology that have tested the influence of environmental factors on the assemblage structure

Methods

Results

Conclusion