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Fish assemblages and water quality in pampean streams (Argentina) along an urbanization gradient

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Abstract

The Matanza Riachuelo Basin is one of the most polluted watersheds in the world. We assessed the relationships between land use, stream-water quality, and the structure of the fish assemblages on a subbasin scale from data obtained in 44 sampling sites. A gradient of change from the rural upper sector to the urbanized and industrialized lower basin in conjunction with water-quality impoverishment was recorded. Redundancy analysis revealed that dissolved oxygen concentration, heavy metals, detergents, and Escherichia coli were the most explanatory variables of that gradient. Fish assemblages manifested the highest richness, abundance, and diversity in the rural areas; in the urbanized and industrialized sectors, the fish community became severely modified, represented only by tolerant species. Multivariate analyses indicated that the fish assemblage structure was highly impacted by water-quality deterioration. The combined study of the impacts of land use on water quality and fish assemblages enabled a detailed diagnosis of the consequent effects on a subbasin scale, thus substantiating the usefulness of fish assemblages as a model for that purpose. Field studies over large-scale gradients of environmental impact are essential for understanding the mechanisms of ecological deterioration and biotic responses as a first step in developing remediation policies.

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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was jointly supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), and the Autoridad de la Cuenca Matanza-Riachuelo (ACUMAR). We wholeheartedly thank Eugenio Coconier and Roberto Jensen for their collaboration during the field studies. We also are grateful to Sergio Bogan for his support in the identification of certain specimens, and the Fundación de Historia Natural Félix de Azara for housing the fish vouchers in the ichthyological collection. This document represents the Scientific Contribution N° 1174 of the Instituto de Limnología Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet (CONICET-UNLP). Dr. Donald F. Haggerty, a retired academic career investigator and native English speaker, edited the final version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received the joint support of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), and Autoridad de la Cuenca Matanza-Riachuelo (ACUMAR)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ILPLA (Instituto de Limnología ‘‘Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet’’), UNLP - CONICET (CCT La Plata), Boulevard 120 y 62, CC 712, CP 1900, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Juan Martín Paredes del Puerto, Ariel Hernán Paracampo, Ignacio Daniel García, Tomás Maiztegui, Javier Ricardo Garcia de Souza, Miriam Edith Maroñas & Darío César Colautti

  2. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la provincia de Buenos Aires (CIC), La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Tomás Maiztegui

Authors
  1. Juan Martín Paredes del Puerto
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  2. Ariel Hernán Paracampo
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  3. Ignacio Daniel García
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  4. Tomás Maiztegui
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  5. Javier Ricardo Garcia de Souza
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  6. Miriam Edith Maroñas
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  7. Darío César Colautti
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Contributions

JMPdP: investigation, conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, resources, data curation, writing of the original draft, writing and editing of the revised version, visualization. AP: investigation, conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, resources, data processing, writing of the original draft, writing and editing of the revised version, visualization. IG: resources, data processing, writing and editing of the revised version. TM: resources, data processing, writing and editing of the revised version. JGdS: resources, data processing, writing and editing of the revised version. MM: resources, data processing, writing and editing of the revised version. DC: investigation, conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, resources, data processing, writing and editing of the revised version, visualization, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ariel Hernán Paracampo.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethics approval

Care during the collection and handling of fish for this study complied with the Buenos Aires Province (Argentina) Wildlife and Fisheries Authority guidelines and policies (Law 11,477). The collections for this study were not part of faunal surveys and did not employ any type of experimental procedure, surgery, or chemical agents that would induce neuromuscular blockage or injury on the organisms collected. All the fish collected were euthanized as humanely as possible by anesthesia to prevent unnecessary suffering.

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Paredes del Puerto, J.M., Paracampo, A.H., García, I.D. et al. Fish assemblages and water quality in pampean streams (Argentina) along an urbanization gradient. Hydrobiologia 848, 4493–4510 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04657-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04657-z

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