Neotropical Ichthyology ()

Influence of environmental parameters on fish assemblage of a neotropical river with a flood pulse regime, Central Brazil

  • Tatiana Lima de Melo,
  • Francisco Leonardo Tejerina-Garro,
  • Cesar Enrique de Melo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1679-62252009000300009
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 3
pp. 421 – 428

Abstract

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This study aims to determine which of twelve environmental parameters (five physicochemical and seven hydromorphological) influence on the fish assemblage structure of the lower Mortes River basin located in the Bananal floodplain of the Araguaia River basin, Central Brazil. Sampling was conducted in six stretches of 1000 m each during the high and low waters. Fish were captured using gill nets and environmental parameters were measured by portable equipment or determined visually. The co-inertia analysis indicated that two physicochemical (dissolved oxygen and water transparency), and four hydromorphological (channel width and depth, riparian vegetation cover and type of the riverside substrate) parameters structure the fish assemblages, both driven by the regional hydrological patterns (flood pulse). These results are explained by fish-environmental parameters relationship characteristic of the aquatic Neotropical systems.

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