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Ecology and life-history of Mesonauta festivus: biological traits of a broad ranged and abundant Neotropical cichlid

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Abstract

The cichlid Mesonauta festivus is common and abundant among macrophyte stands along a large geographical range of the Amazonas and Paraná-Paraguay basins, in South America. This broad geographical range highlights the species’ dispersion ability, which can be attributed to specific biological and behavioral traits. However, the dispersion ability does not account for the broad geographical range alone, as the species must be able to establish populations in a range of environments, which include marginal areas of large rivers with different water types, floodplain lakes, and small terra-firme streams. In this work we investigated the specie’s ecology, biological traits and behavior in order to understand what and how its traits may have allowed it to attain such broad geographical range and aid in establishing local populations. Regarding its dispersion ability we stress the capability of swimming in the pelagic region, which is remarkable for this species and uncommon among Neotropical cichlids. Its vagility is high even when juveniles are under parental care. Regarding population establishment, the high environmental tolerance stands out, allowing the species to live under strikingly different abiotic conditions. In addition, the small size of first sexual maturation and its capability of spawning along the whole hydrologic cycle (apparently not associated to a specific environmental cue) may also facilitate the establishment of populations into new environments. Moreover, the behavior of mimicking dead leaves, which is mainly performed by juveniles, may lessen predation pressures. Under an eco-evolutionary perspective, the traits highlighted in this work may buffer selective pressures experienced by populations in different biotic and/or abiotic conditions, which may also favor the increasing of the geographical range by allowing the evolutionary lineage to remain similar even in disconnected and/or striking different environments.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers who provided us with helpful advices. We thank Carolina Doria and Santo Antônio Energia S.A. for allowing the use of LIP-UNIR database, and Lucia Rapp Py-Daniel for kindly providing access to INPA’s fish collection database. We thank the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for providing scholarship to THSP, JS and CPR and Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for providing scholarship to DFC. JZ thanks CNPq for the productivity Grant (#307464/2009-1). The study was conducted according to rules established by INPA’s Ethics Committee (Protocol number: 015/2012). This is the contribution # 34 of the Projeto Igarapés.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia de Água Doce e Pesca Interior/Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia—INPA, Cx. Postal 2223, 69080-971, Manaus, AM, Brazil

    Tiago H. S. Pires, Daniele F. Campos, Cristhiana P. Röpke & Jefferson Sodré

  2. Coordenação de Biodiversidade—CBIO/Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia – INPA, Cx. Postal 2223, 69080-971, Manaus, AM, Brazil

    Sidinéia Amadio & Jansen Zuanon

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  1. Tiago H. S. Pires
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  2. Daniele F. Campos
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  3. Cristhiana P. Röpke
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  5. Sidinéia Amadio
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Correspondence to Daniele F. Campos.

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Leaf mimicry behavior by a resting Mesonauta festivus adult. (MPG 51208 kb)

Fig. A1

Size distribution of oocytes diameter of each ripe female of Mesonauta festivus (N = 17) from Catalão Lake. BF= Batch fecundity (DOC 486 kb)

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Pires, T.H.S., Campos, D.F., Röpke, C.P. et al. Ecology and life-history of Mesonauta festivus: biological traits of a broad ranged and abundant Neotropical cichlid. Environ Biol Fish 98, 789–799 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-014-0314-z

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