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Richness and abundance of stream fish communities in a fragmented neotropical landscape

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Abstract

Environmental conditions influence ecological processes that shape stream community diversity and abundance. Deforestation has the potential to limit available particulate organic matter and raise stream temperatures. The degree to which tropical stream communities are impacted by these changes is likely to differ between systems, but empirical data from tropical regions are lacking. This lack of baseline data hinders conservation policy as well as efforts to better understand biogeographic and anthropogenic impacts on species’ distributions. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 27 sites in six previously unstudied streams across a gradient of deforestation in northwest Ecuador and assessed the degree to which localized deforestation predicted patterns of community composition of fishes. Using general linear mixed models and AICC we found that neither forest fragmentation nor canopy closure was a significant predictor of species richness and found no difference between the species richness of fragmented and continuous sites. However, forest fragmentation was a strong predictor of abundance, occurring in 31 of 31 general linear mixed models, with higher abundance in fragmented forest than in continuous forest. Of 16 species found, eight occurred at five or more sites and one (Pseudochalceus boehlkei), numbered 200 out of 627 individuals. NMDS and SIMPER analysis suggested that community composition differed between fragmented and continuous sites. P. boehlkei, Pseudopoecilia fria, and Astroblepus cf. fissidens species presented in higher abundances in deforested sites, possibly suggesting a less functionally diverse community. This pattern is consistent with neotropical streams that have experienced partial deforestation but not total degradation of habitat.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the support of FCAT (Fundación para la Conservación de los Andes Tropicales), the Jatun Sacha Foundation, and the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment.We thank J. Olivo, P. Leberg, F. Castillo, and D. Cabrera. This project was supported by a Taylor Travel Enrichment Grant presented by the Newcomb-Tulane College grant committee at Tulane University and by the Disney Conservation Fund. All research was conducted with approval of the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment (MAE –DPAE 2017-0771-O). We would additionally like to think the entire Olivo family for making study in the Mache-Chindul Reserve a possibility.

Funding

This project was supported by a Taylor Travel Enrichment Grant presented by the Newcomb-Tulane College grant committee at Tulane University and by the Disney Conservation Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Tulane University, 400 Boggs Building, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA

    Samuel S Leberg, Henry Bart, Kaushik Narasimhan & Jordan Karubian

  2. Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Ladrón de Guevara E11-253, 170517, Quito, Ecuador

    Ramiro Barriga

  3. Fundación para la Conservación de los Andes Tropicales, Mariano Hurtado y Vicente Heredia, N-5089, Quito, Ecuador

    Alfredo Olivo, Kaushik Narasimhan & Jordan Karubian

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  1. Samuel S Leberg
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Samuel S Leberg, Ramiro Barriga, Alfredo Olivo and Kaushik Narasimhan. The first draft of this manuscript was written by Samuel Leberg and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Samuel S Leberg.

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This study was conducted with the approval of the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment (MAE –DPAE 2017–0771-O).

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Leberg, S.S., Barriga, R., Bart, H. et al. Richness and abundance of stream fish communities in a fragmented neotropical landscape. Environ Biol Fish 104, 239–251 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-021-01066-y

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