Fish species richness is associated with the availability of landscape components across seasons in the Amazonian floodplain

PeerJ

article

Carlos Edwar Carvalho Freitas¹  Laurie Laurenson²  Kedma Cristine Yamamoto¹  Bruce Rider Forsberg³  Miguel Petrere Jr⁴  Caroline Arantes⁵  Flavia Kelly Siqueira-Souza¹ 

[1] Department of Fisheries Sciences/Faculty of Agriculture Sciences, Federal University of Amazonas;School of Life & Environmental Sciences/Faculty of Science, Engineering & Built Environment, Deakin University;Coordenação de Dinâmica Ambiental, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia;Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará;Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, University of Michigan—Ann Arbor

关键词: Fish diversity;    Spatial environmental variables;    Wetlands;    Amazon basin;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.5080

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Understanding environmental biodiversity drivers in freshwater systems continues to be a fundamental challenge in studies of their fish assemblages. The present study seeks to determine the degree to which landscape variables of Amazonian floodplain lakes influences fish assemblages in these environments. Fish species richness was estimated in 15 Amazonian floodplain lakes during the high and low-water phases and correlated with the areas of four inundated wetland classes: (i) open water, (ii) flooded herbaceous, (iii) flooded shrubs and (iv) flooded forest estimated in different radius circular areas around each sampling site. Data were analyzed using generalized linear models with fish species richness, total and guilds as the dependent variable and estimates of buffered landscape areas as explanatory variables. Our analysis identified the significance of landscape variables in determining the diversity of fish assemblages in Amazonian floodplain lakes. Spatial scale was also identified as a significant determinant of fish diversity as landscape effects were more evident at larger spatial scales. In particular, (1) total species richness was more sensitive to variations in the landscape areas than number of species within guilds and (2) the spatial extent of the wetland class of shrubs was consistently the more influential on fish species diversity.

【 授权许可】

CC BY