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Environmental influences on the distribution of arapaima in Amazon floodplains

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Abstract

This study investigated the environmental factors influencing the distribution of the endangered arapaima (Arapaima spp.) in floodplains of the Amazon. The abundance of arapaima was found to be positively related to the area and depth of the water column, and hence volume of lakes. Greater depth of water column also was related positively with the abundance and presence of arapaima in connecting channels. The abundance of arapaima was positively related to the connectivity of the lake with other water bodies. The principal reason for arapaima to prefer habitats that are deep, large, and connected to other water bodies appears to be increased survival through lower susceptibility to extreme drought events and increased mobility and availability of food resources. Deeper, larger, and more connected lakes and connecting channels sustain greater arapaima populations; they can now be used to prioritize conservation efforts.

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Notes

  1. Taxonomic status of the studied population remains uncertain (Castello and Stewart 2010), so we use only the genus name.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Valmir Lima, Sandro Carvalho Brandão, and several fishermen of the Jarauá Community for help in the field, especially Raimundinho Cordeiro and local fishers for doing population counts. Diego Pinheiro provided assistance with Fig. 1. Gecely Rocha, Gil Strenzel, Miguel Petrere, Sofia Campiolo, Donald Stewart and two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on the manuscript. We thank the following institutions for financial and/or logistic support: Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá, Instituto Internacional de Educação do Brasil (BECA-IEB/Moore Foundation, process number B/2007/01/BMP/03), Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz e Programa de Pós Graduação em Zoologia, Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa, Petrobrás, Moore Foundation (Grant to WHCR), Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia.

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  1. Caroline C. Arantes

    Present address: Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia, Santarém, Brazil

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development, Tefé, Amazonas, Brazil

    Caroline C. Arantes

  2. Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Leandro Castello

  3. The Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA, 02540, USA

    Leandro Castello

  4. Department of Environmental Sciences, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Campus Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil

    Mauricio Cetra

  5. Graduate Program of Zoology, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil

    Caroline C. Arantes & Ana Schilling

  6. Department of Exact and Technological Sciences, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil

    Ana Schilling

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  1. Caroline C. Arantes
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Correspondence to Caroline C. Arantes.

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Arantes, C.C., Castello, L., Cetra, M. et al. Environmental influences on the distribution of arapaima in Amazon floodplains. Environ Biol Fish 96, 1257–1267 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-011-9917-9

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