Abstract
Abstract The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive list of the fish fauna of headwater streams of the Miranda River in the Upper Paraguay River Basin. Our primary data set was constructed from sampling of fish using a rectangular sieve, trawl, and gill nets from 2004 to 2015. Our secondary data were derived from published reports conducted in the Miranda River Basin, in addition to taxonomic and distribution data from other studies conducted in the basin. All data were compiled, which in the end encompassed a period from 1999 to 2015. The datasets yielded a total of 143 species, 104 from the primary data (72.7%) and 39 from the secondary data (27.3%). Species were distributed among seven orders and 30 families were found in the Miranda River Basin. Characiformes and Siluriformes were the predominant orders, and the families Characidae and Loricariidae had the greatest number of species. Our results indicate a greater number of species compared to other studies of the Upper Paraguay Basin headwaters, likely due to the longer time frame covered by our primary and secondary datasets.
Highlights
The Paraguay River Basin is an important drainage of the La Plata River Basin (Lowe-McConnell 1999), and occupies a total area of about 496,000 km2 (Junk et al 2006)
The Brazilian Pantanal has a total area of approximately 361,700 km2, with 72.7% of the total territory lying in Brazil and the remainder in Bolivia and Paraguay
The upper Paraguay basin in Brazilian divided into two distinct regions: a floodplain known as the ‘Pantanal’, which at approximately 138,200 km2 constitutes one of the largest wetland areas in the world; and a plateau comprised of areas with altitudes greater than 200 m encompassing approximately 223,500 km2 (Silva & Abdon 1998)
Summary
The Paraguay River Basin is an important drainage of the La Plata River Basin (Lowe-McConnell 1999), and occupies a total area of about 496,000 km (Junk et al 2006). The upper Paraguay basin in Brazilian divided into two distinct regions: a floodplain known as the ‘Pantanal’, which at approximately 138,200 km constitutes one of the largest wetland areas in the world; and a plateau comprised of areas with altitudes greater than 200 m encompassing approximately 223,500 km (Silva & Abdon 1998). In studies of the plateau portion of the basin, analyses at small spatial scales were the predominant
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