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The role of free-flowing tributary rivers in the maintenance of genetic diversity of a migratory fish species living in a river fragmented by dams

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Abstract

In the neotropics, potamodromous fish species are among the most severely impacted by dams, which can lead to blocking of the migratory routes, elimination of the breeding areas, and population isolation in this group. However, growing evidence has indicated that free-flowing tributaries along fragmented watersheds provide important contributions to the reproductive migration and recruitment of migratory fish. If this is really occurring, we could expect low or undetectable population differences in different reservoirs and respective unimpeded tributaries along watersheds fragmented by dams. Aiming to test this hypothesis, we assessed the genetic diversity and population structure of Pimelodus maculatus, a migratory catfish species, in seven reservoirs and nine tributaries along the Paranapanema River basin, Paraguay-Paraná-Plata system, South America. As predicted in our initial hypothesis, after analyzing nine microsatellite loci and a 406-bp mitochondrial DNA sequence (D-Loop) in 640 individuals, we found high nuclear genetic diversity and non-significant genetic substructuring among each reservoir and its tributaries, contrasting with the results between samples separated by dams. Our findings reinforce the idea that free‐flowing tributary rivers are contributing to maintenance of wider population distributions, larger effective population sizes, and satisfactory genetic diversity levels.

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Data availability

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

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Araucaria Foundation for financial support (number 923/2013); DGF thanks the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for the scholarship awarded - Finance Code 001; SHS receives a productivity research fellowship from CNPq (PQ 305343/2018-1). We would like to thank Dr. Oscar Akio Shibatta (State University of Londrina) for his help in identifying the species studied and to IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources)/ICMBio-System (Institute Chico Mendes—MMA) for permission to collect samples.

Funding

Open Access funding is provided by Araucaria Foundation financial (agreement number 923/2013). Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - Brazil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. Universidade Estadual de Londrina (UEL) and Universidade Estadual do Norte do Paraná (UENP) supported this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Estadual do Norte do Paraná, Campus Cornélio Procópio, Rodovia PR 160, Km 0, Cornélio Procópio, PR, 86300-000, Brazil

    Dhiego G. Ferreira, Bruno A. Galindo, Jéssica S. Meschini & Augusto S. Zanatta

  2. Departamento de Biologia Geral, CCB, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, PR, Brazil

    Caroline Apolinário-Silva, Fernanda S. Almeida & Silvia H. Sofia

  3. School of Biology and Environmental Science, UCD Science Education and Research Centre – West, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Jens Carlsson

  4. Centro de Biociências e Biotecnolgia, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brazil

    Wilson Frantine-Silva

Authors
  1. Dhiego G. Ferreira
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  2. Jens Carlsson
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  3. Bruno A. Galindo
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  4. Wilson Frantine-Silva
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  5. Caroline Apolinário-Silva
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  6. Jéssica S. Meschini
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  7. Augusto S. Zanatta
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  8. Fernanda S. Almeida
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  9. Silvia H. Sofia
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Contributions

DGF, BAG, CAS, JSM, and ASZ carried out the field activities. DGF, BAG, JC, FSA, and SH participated in the study sample design. DGF, BAG, WF, JC, and SHS carried out the interpretation of the final data. All authors participated in the writing of the final document.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dhiego G. Ferreira.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Ethics approval

Approval in the Ethics Committee of the State University of Londrina, CEUA no 28522.2013.89.

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The author’s consent for the publication.

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Handling editor: Christian Sturmbauer

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Supplementary Information

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Supplementary file1 (JPG 2666 kb)

Supplementary file2 (JPG 2086 kb)

10750_2021_4782_MOESM3_ESM.docx

Supplementary file3 (DOCX 96 kb) Table S1 Summary statistics for nine microsatellite loci among Pimelodus maculatus samples collected at nineteen locations in the Paranapanema River Basin and Paraná River. N - Number of individuals analyzed, NA - number of alleles per locus (all loci—mean and total number per population), f>5% - alleles more frequent than 5%, NE – number of effective alleles, NP - number of private alleles, RA – allelic richness, HO – observed heterozygosity, HE – expected heterozygosity, HWE - loci deviated from Hardy–Weinberg proportions, FIS – inbreeding index. *Hardy–Weinberg disequilibrium and # significant inbreeding index values (P value < 0.05).

10750_2021_4782_MOESM4_ESM.docx

Supplementary file4 (DOCX 19 kb) Table S2 Pairwise FST (Below diagonal) and RST (Above diagonal) values among samples of Pimelodus maculatus obtained along the Paranapanema River Basin, based on microsatellite data. *Significant values - P value < 0.05.

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Ferreira, D.G., Carlsson, J., Galindo, B.A. et al. The role of free-flowing tributary rivers in the maintenance of genetic diversity of a migratory fish species living in a river fragmented by dams. Hydrobiologia 849, 1221–1237 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04782-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04782-9

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