Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T16:57:58.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fish assemblages in floodplain lakes in a Neotropical river during the wet season (Magdalena River, Colombia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2012

Carlos Granado-Lorencio*
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Sevilla, Box 1095, 41080 Sevilla, Spain
Alejandra Gulfo
Affiliation:
Ichthyology Group, Sciences Institute, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
Frank Alvarez
Affiliation:
Ichthyology Group, Sciences Institute, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
Luz Fernanda Jiménez-Segura
Affiliation:
Ichthyology Group, Sciences Institute, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
Juan David Carvajal-Quintero
Affiliation:
Ichthyology Group, Sciences Institute, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
Andrés Hernández-Serna
Affiliation:
Ichthyology Group, Sciences Institute, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
*
1Corresponding author. Email: granado@us.es

Abstract:

A number of studies have pointed out that abiotic factors and recolonization dynamics appear to be more important than biotic interactions in structuring river–fish assemblages. In this paper, we studied the fish assemblages in 27 floodplain lakes, with perennial connection to the river, in the middle section of the Magdalena River (Colombia), to examine spatial pattern in freshwater fish diversity in relation to some environmental parameters. Our objective was to examine relationships between floodplain-lake fish communities and environmental variables associated with lake morphology, water chemistry and river–floodplain connectivity in a large river–floodplain ecosystem. During the study, a total of 18 237 fish were caught from 50 species (regional richness; 17 were migrants and 33 residents). In the present study, the most diverse order was Characiformes with 20 species, followed by Siluriformes, with 19 species. Characidae and Loricaridae were the richest families. The range of species richness (local richness) varied between five and 39 species. Similarity of local assemblages (using the presence–absence data) depends on the distance between lakes. A positive relationship was observed between the Ln of the total abundance of each species and the number of lakes where they were found. Out of all the environmental parameters taken in the lakes, only the size (Log Area) and relative perimeter length are significantly related to local assemblage species richness. It has not been possible to demonstrate that the connectivity (distance) from lakes to the main river can be considered a predictor of the local richness.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ALBERT, J. & REIS, R. 2011. Historical biogeography of Neotropical freshwater fishes. University of California Press, Berkeley. 388 pp.Google Scholar
ARAÚJO, F. G., PINTO, B. C. T. & TEXEIRA, T. P. 2009. Longitudinal patterns of fish assemblages in a large tropical river in southeastern Brazil: evaluating environmental influences and some concepts in river ecology. Hydrobiologia 618:89107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BERTOLO, A. & MAGNAN, P. 2006. Spatial and environmental correlates of fish community structure in Canadian Shield lakes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 63:27802792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BÖHLKE, J. E., WEITZMAN, S. H. & MENEZES, N. A. 1978. Estado actual da sistemática dos peixes de água doce da América do Sul. Acta Amazónica 8:657677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CAROLSFIELD, J., HARVEY, B., ROSS, C. & BAER, A. 2004. Migratory fishes of South America: biology, fisheries and conservation status. (First edition). World Fisheries Trust, IDRC and World Bank, New York. 326 pp.Google Scholar
FERNANDES, I. M., MACHADO, F. A. & PENHA, J. 2010. Spatial pattern of a fish assemblage in a seasonal tropical wetland: effects of habitat herbaceous plant biomass, water depth, and distance from species sources. Neotropical Ichthyology 8:289298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FISHER, J. & LINDENMAYER, D. B. 2002. Treating the nestedness temperature calculator as a “black box” can lead to false conclusions. Oikos 99:193199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GALVIS, G. & MÓJICA, J. I. 2004. The Magdalena River fresh water fishes and fisheries. Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management 10:127139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GASTON, K. J. 2000. Global patterns in biodiversity. Nature 405:220227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
GASTON, K. J. & BLACKBURN, T. M. 2000. Pattern and process in macroecology. Blackwell Science, Oxford. 325 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GODOY, J. R., PETTS, G. & SALO, J. 1999. Riparian flooded forest of the Orinoco and Amazon basins: a comparative review. Biodiversity and Conservation 8:551586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GRANADO LORENCIO, C., ARAÚJO LIMA, C. R. M. & LOBÓN CERVIÁ, J. 2005. Abundance–distribution relationships in fish assembly of the Amazonas floodplain lakes. Ecography 28:515520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GRANADO LORENCIO, C., LOBÓN CERVIÁ, J. & ARAÚJO LIMA, C. R. M. 2007. Floodplain lake fish assemblages in the Amazonian River: directions in conservation biology. Biodiversity and Conservation 16;679692.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JACKSON, D. A., SOMERS, K. M. & HARVEY, H. H. 1992. Null models and fish communities: evidence of non-random patterns. American Naturalist 139:930951.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JUNK, W., BAYLEY, P. B. & SPARKS, R. E. 1989. The flood pulse concept in river–floodplain systems. Pp. 110127 in Dodge, D. P. (ed.). Large Rivers Symposium (LARS). National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Toronto.Google Scholar
LA SORTE, F. A. & MCKINNEY, M. L. 2007. Compositional changes over space and time along an occurrence–abundance continuum: anthropogenic homogenization of the North American avifauna. Journal of Biogeography 34:21592167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LIU, X & WANG, H. 2010. Estimation of minimum area requirement of river-connected lakes for fish diversity conservation in the Yagtze River floodplain. Diversity and Distribution 16:932940.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LOMOLINO, M. V. 2000. Ecologist´s most general, yet protean pattern: the species–area relationship. Journal of Biogeography 27:1726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LOWE, W. H., LIKENS, G. E. & POWER, M. E. 2006. Linking scales in stream ecology. BioScience 56:591597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LOWE-MCCONNELL, R. H. 1987. Ecological studies in tropical fish communities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 382 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LUBINSKI, B. J., JACKSON, J. R. & EGGLETON, M. A. 2008. Relationships between floodplain lake fish communities and environmental variables in a Large River–Floodplain ecosystem. Transactions of American Fisheries Society 137:895908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MALONEY, K. O. & MUNGUIA, P. 2011. Distance decay of similarity in temperate aquatic communities: effects of environmental transition zones, distance measure, and life histories. Ecography 34:287295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MCABENDROTH, L., FOGGO, A., RUNDLE, S. D. & BILTON, D. T. 2005. Unravelling nestedness and spatial pattern in pond assemblages. Journal of Animal Ecology 74:4149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MCARTHUR, B. H. & WILSON, E. O. 1963. An equilibrium theory of insular zoogeography. Evolution 17:373387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MINNS, C. K. 1989. Factors affecting fish species richness in Notario lakes. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 118:533545.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MONTAÑA, C. G. & WINEMILLER, K. O. 2010. Local-scale habitat influences morphological diversity of species assemblages of cichlid fishes in a tropical floodplain river. Ecology of Freshwater Fish 19:216227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NEKOLA, J. C. & WHITE, P. S. 1999. The distance decay of similarity in biogeography and ecology. Journal of Biogeography 26:867878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PERES-NETO, P. R. 2004. Patterns in the co-occurrence of fish species in streams: the role of site suitability, morphology and phylogeny versus species interactions. Oecologia 140:352360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
PETRY, P., BAYLEY, P. B. & MARKLE, D. F. 2003. Relationships between fish assemblages, macrophytes and environmental gradients in the Amazon River floodplain. Journal of Fish Biology 63:547579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
QIAN, H. 2010. Beta diversity in relation to dispersal ability for vascular plants in North-America. Global Ecology and Biogeography 18:327332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RESTREPO, J. D. & JERFVE, B. 2000. Magdalena river: interannual variability (1975–1995) and revised water discharge and sediment load estimates. Journal of Hydrology 235:137149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RODRÍGUEZ, M. A. & LEWIS, W. M. 1994. Regulation and stability in fish assemblages along environmental gradients in floodplain lakes of the Orinoco River. Ecological Monograph 67:109128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROSINDELL, J., HUBBELL, S. P. & ETIENNE, R. S. 2011. The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography at age ten. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 26:340346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
SAINT-PAUL, U., ZUANON, J., VILLACORTA-CORREA, M. A., GARCIA, M., FABRÉ, N. N., BERGER, U. & JUNK, W. J. 2000. Fish communities in central Amazonian white- and blackwater floodplains. Environmental Biology of Fishes 57:235250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SANDERSON, R. A., EYRE, M. D. & RUSHTON, S. P. 2005. Distribution of selected macroinvertebrates in a mosaic of temporary and permanent freshwater ponds as explained by autologistic models. Ecography 28:355362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHOMAKER, C. H. & WOLTER, C. H. 2011. The contribution of long-term isolated water bodies to floodplain fish diversity. Freshwater Biology 56:14691480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SNODGRASS, J. W., LAWRENCE, B. A., LIDE, R. F. & SMITH, G. H. 1995. Factors affecting the occurrence and structure of fish assemblages in isolated wetlands of the upper coastal plain, USA. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 53:443454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SONDERGAARD, M., JEPPESEN, E. & JENSEN, J. P. 2005. Pond or lake: does it make any difference? Archiv für Hydrobiologie 163:143165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SUÁREZ, Y. R., PETRERE, M. & CATELLA, A. C. 2004. Factors regulating diversity and abundance of fish communities in Pantanal lagoons. Fisheries Management and Ecology 11:4550.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TAYLOR, C. M. & WARREN, M. L. 2001. Dynamics of species composition of stream fish assemblages: environmental variability and nested subsets. Ecology 82:23202330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TEDESCO, P., OBERDORFF, T., LASSO, C. A., ZAPATA, M. & HUGUENY, B. 2005. Evidence of history in explaining diversity patterns in tropical riverine fish. Journal of Biogeography 32:18991907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TEJERINA GARRO, F., FORTIN, R. & RODRIGUEZ, M. 1998. Fish community structure in relation to environmental variation in floodplain lakes of the Araguaia River, Amazon Basin. Environmental Biology of Fishes 51:399410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
THOMAZ, S. M., BINI, L. M. & BOZELLI, R. L. 2007. Flood increase similarity among aquatic habitats in river–floodplain systems. Hydrobiologia 579:113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
THOMPSON, J. N. 2009. The coevolving web of life. American Naturalist 173:125150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
TOCKNER, K., SCHIEMER, F., BAUMGARTNER, C., KUM, G., WEIGAND, E., ZWEIMULLER, L. & WARD, J. V. 1999. The Danube restoration project: species diversity patterns across connectivity gradients in the floodplain system. Regulated Rivers Research and Management 15:245258.3.0.CO;2-G>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WINEMILLER, K. O. 1996. Dynamic diversity in fish assemblages of tropical rivers. Pp. 99134 in Cody, M. L. & Smallwood, J. A. (eds.). Long term studies of vertebrate communities. Academic Press, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WINEMILLER, K. O., TARIM, S., SHORMANN, D. & COTNER, J. B. 2000. Fish assemblage structure in relation to environmental variation among Brazos River oxbow lakes. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 129;451468.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar