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Microhabitat segregation and fine ecomorphological dissimilarity between two closely phylogenetically related grazer fishes in an Atlantic Forest stream, Brazil

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Abstract

Habitat segregation is considered the most prevalent resource-partitioning mechanism for stream fishes and the species morphology can be a strong predictor of their spatial distribution. However, most studies addressing morphology-habitat relationships have defined the space in physiognomically homogeneous units (i.e., mesohabitat), probably not detecting segregation among several closely related species. Here we investigated the ecomorphology and the use of habitat in a fine spatial scale (i.e., microhabitat) by two closely phylogenetically related grazer fishes (the loricariids Parotocinclus maculicauda and Hisonotus notatus), syntopic in an Atlantic Forest stream. We conducted standardized underwater observations in two 50 m long stream sections differing in canopy condition, totaling 273 individual microhabitat records. We clearly detected microhabitat segregation between the species. In both sample sites, H. notatus remained near the stream banks and closer to shelters, while P. maculicauda predominantly occurred in more hydrodynamic microhabitats, facing higher focal current velocities and water turbulence. Differences in focal elevation and water depth (i.e., vertical segregation) were exclusively detected in the deforested site. The spatial segregation was congruent with slight interspecific morphological differences, being in accordance with hypotheses about form-function relationships previously reported for fishes. Given that the diel activity and diet of these grazer species were strongly overlapping, we believe that the observed microhabitat segregation favors resource partitioning between P. maculicauda and H. notatus, facilitating their coexistence in high abundances in the studied system. This study illustrates how the assessment of fine-tuned ecological processes can provide subsidy to management strategies aiming the conservation of tropical stream biodiversity.

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Acknowledgments

We thank J. Lobón-Cerviá and D. Lin for suggestions in the microhabitat sampling design and P. Peres-Neto, A. Petry, P. De Marco, and M. Albrecht in the data analysis. We are grateful to the Laboratório de Ecologia de Peixes/UFRJ fieldwork staff, especially F. Caluca, P. Macedo-Soares, M. Brito, H. Lazzarotto, J. Rego, C. Brazil, M. Cardoso, and A. Pacheco. D. Almeida assisted us with the morphological measurements, and C. Rezende revised initial versions of the manuscript. Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis – IBAMA for collect permit (#004/2004). EPC thanks for Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq (#309506/2003-4). This study is part of the MSc. dissertation (PPGE-UFRJ) of RPL and was financially supported by PROCAD (#1409/2007) and CNPq (#1327822004-9).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Ecologia de Peixes, Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Brigadeiro Trompowski, Cidade Universitária, 21941-541, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Rafael Pereira Leitão, Victor Trivério-Cardoso, Carolina Morais Araújo & Érica Pellegrini Caramaschi

  2. Coordenação de Biodiversidade, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Av. André Araújo, 2936, Petrópolis, 69080-971, Manaus, AM, Brazil

    Rafael Pereira Leitão, Daniele Kasper & Jansen Zuanon

  3. Laboratório de Ecologia, Departamento de Biologia, Centro de Ciências, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Campus do Pici, Bloco 906, 60455-970, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil

    Jorge Ivan Sánchez-Botero

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  1. Rafael Pereira Leitão
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Correspondence to Rafael Pereira Leitão.

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Leitão, R.P., Sánchez-Botero, J.I., Kasper, D. et al. Microhabitat segregation and fine ecomorphological dissimilarity between two closely phylogenetically related grazer fishes in an Atlantic Forest stream, Brazil. Environ Biol Fish 98, 2009–2019 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-015-0423-3

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