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Seasonal response of fish assemblages to habitat fragmentation caused by an impoundment in a Neotropical river

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Abstract

Changes in fish assemblages between the zones above and below Funil dam in Southeastern Brazil were investigated to evaluate the possible impacts of this impoundment in two contrasting seasons: summer/wet and winter/dry. We expect differences in fish assemblage structure and in environmental conditions between seasons and between the reservoir and the zone downriver of the dam. A total of 3,579 individuals comprising 38 species, including six non-natives, were collected. As expected, the comparatively high habitat complexity and water flow regime of the downriver zone favored a richer and more abundant fish assemblage compared with the reservoir, especially in the wet season. In this period, water covers part of the riparian vegetation, increasing habitat availability and nutrient input. Additionally, the dam prevents upriver migration of rheophilics fish species such as the Characiformes Prochilodus lineatus and Leporinus copelandii, and the Siluriformes Pimelodus fur and Pimelodus maculatus, thus increasing shoals below the dam. Although the reservoir represents a simplified ecosystem highly influenced by non-native top predator species (e.g. the Perciformes Cichla kelberi and Plagioscion squamosissimus), seasonal processes (e.g. water level fluctuations and flood pulses) seem to play a role in structuring of the fish assemblage. Environmental variables, mainly turbidity, temperature, and conductivity were significantly associated to spatial-temporal patterns of fish assemblage. In this freshwater tropical reservoir, the spatial scale, rather than the seasonal changes in environmental variables, was the dominant factor structuring fish assemblage in the reservoir and in the zone downriver of the dam.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Programme CT-Hidro (Process 474875⁄2009-1 and 4556247/2009-4). The Rio de Janeiro Carlos Chagas Filho Research Support Agency also supplied financial support for this project (Process E-26⁄112.118⁄2008 and E-26⁄102.704⁄08). This research was conducted under SISBIO Collection of Species Permit number 10707 issued by ICMBio, Brazilian Environmental Agency. We thank Paulo César Silva and Luciano Silva for field assistance.

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  1. Laboratório de Ecologia de Peixes, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465, Km 7, Seropédica, 23851-970, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    A. B. Iacone Santos, R. J. Albieri & F. Gerson Araújo

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  1. A. B. Iacone Santos
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  2. R. J. Albieri
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  3. F. Gerson Araújo
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Correspondence to F. Gerson Araújo.

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Iacone Santos, A.B., Albieri, R.J. & Araújo, F.G. Seasonal response of fish assemblages to habitat fragmentation caused by an impoundment in a Neotropical river. Environ Biol Fish 96, 1377–1387 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-013-0115-9

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