Efeitos do espaço e do ambiente sobre assembleias de peixes de igarapés da Amazônia oriental

Abstract

The amazon streams have harsh environmental characteristics for several fish species due to their oligotrophic conditions. In spite of that, these watercourses possess a rich and diversified ichthyofauna, resulting from the various microhabitats found in streams. In ria lake systems, the rivers and streams suffer a natural impoundment, which provokes a lowering on current velocity values. This could homogenize the environment, since current velocity affects many of the streams features. Thereby, distance between streams could have its importance emphasized as a structural factor of stream fish assemblages. This study aimed to analyze the influence of space and environment on the structure of fish assemblages in drowned streams of Caxiuanã, in Eastern Amazon. The fishes were caught during the period of drought of 2010, including 34 transects of drowned streams. Eight abiotic factors were measured to test the effect of the environment. To analyze the effect of the space, space filters were calculated based on the geographical coordinates, as well as the distance among the streams following the watercourse. The analyses showed that the environment was the only factor to influence the beta diversity, refuting the hypothesis of the space as a structuring factor and reinforcing the paper of the ecological niche in the distribution of species. Nevertheless, the abiotic factors explained a low percentage of the variation in the fish composition, what shows that other variables can affect these assemblages.