Tambaqui, Colossoma macropomum, fisheries with focus on an area on middle Amazon River, Amazonas state, Brazil

This study evaluates the importance of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) in fisheries of the Orinoco and Amazon River basins, through the analysis of published data and new data from the fishing fleet of Tefé, a city in the middle Solimões River. Data were collected between 1991 and 1995 in Tefe\'s market and between 1994 and 1995 on board commercial fishing boats. The relative importance of this species can reach 21% of catches in some landing places of the Orinoco basin, in Venezuela; around 8% in the Peruvian Amazonia; and 35% in Bolivian Amazonia. In Brazil, catches of tambaqui increased in the Madeira River region from 10% in 1977 to 32% between 1984 and 1989. In Manaus, this species composed up to 40% of the landed fish in the past. In the 80\'s and 90\'s, the proportion of tambaqui in landed fish has suffered a drastic reduction, declining to as little as 2,5%. In the middle Solimões, which is the main area of fisheries for this species, catches are made with various fishing gears and in different habitats, accordingly with water level fluctuations. In this region, tambaqui fisheries concentrate inside lakes, where the main gears used are gillnet and purse seine, and the catch is composed of the young fish (<55 cm). The habitats created by river bank collapse enseada-pausada") are important for the catch of larger individuals.Este trabalho avalia a importância da pesca do tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) nas bacias dos rios Amazonas e Orinoco e, mais especificamente, na região do médio Solimões. As análises foram baseadas em dados de literatura e da pesca praticada pela frota de Tefé no médio Solimões, coletados no mercado de Tefé, entre 1991 e 1995, e a bordo de embarcações da frota pesqueira comercial, entre 1994 e 1995. A importância relativa da espécie pode alcançar 21% da produção de pescado em alguns centros urbanos da bacia do Orinoco, na Venezuela; 8% da Amazônia peruana; e 35% da Amazônia boliviana. No Brasil, na região do rio Madeira, a importância relativa do tambaqui subiu de 10% em 1977 para 32% entre 1984 e 1989. Em Manaus, a espécie já respondeu por 44% do pescado desembarcado. Porém, a proporção de tambaqui desembarcado nesta cidade sofreu uma grande diminuição nos anos 80 e 90, chegando a representar apenas 2,5% do total desembarcado. No médio Solimões, região apontada como a principal área de pesca para esta espécie, são utilizados diversos tipos de aparelhos e explorados diferentes habitats, de acordo com a flutuação do nível da água dos rios. A pesca do tambaqui nesta região é realizada principalmente em lagos, através de malhadeira e rede de cerco, incidindo sobre peixes jovens (<55 cm). O ambiente formado pela caída de terras nos meandros do rio enseada-pausada") é importante para a captura de indivíduos de maior porte

Estrutura de tamanho e distribuição espacial da piramutaba (Brachyplatystoma vaillantii) na Foz Amazônica: implicações para o manejo da pesca

A piramutaba (Brachyplatystoma vaillantii) é um importante recurso pesqueiro explotado pela pesca artesanal e industrial no estuário Amazônico. Uma das primeiras medidas adotadas para o manejo da pesca industrial foi a sua exclusão da área considerada criadouro natural da espécie. Considerando o esforço empregado para a implementação e monitoramento da área de exclusão da frota industrial, foram avaliadas as premissas que definem o seu estabelecimento. Pescarias experimentais foram realizadas para verificar diferenças na estrutura de tamanho da piramutaba entre as áreas protegida e não protegida. Foi capturado um total de 61,08 toneladas de piramutaba, sendo que 3% foram descartados por se tratar de peixes pequenos ou danificados e 93% possuí­­am mais de 2 anos de idade. As áreas de pesca mais interna, que estão protegidas pela atual legislação, apresentaram captura maior que a mais externa. Não foi verificada maior concentração de peixes jovens em nenhuma dessas áreas. Discute-se a efetividade da implementação de áreas protegidas ou de exclusão da frota industrial como método para recuperar o estoque da piramutaba

The potential impact of new Andean dams on Amazon fluvial ecosystems

Increased energy demand has led to plans for building many new dams in the western Amazon, mostly in the Andean region. Historical data and mechanistic scenarios are used to examine potential impacts above and below six of the largest dams planned for the region, including reductions in downstream sediment and nutrient supplies, changes in downstream flood pulse, changes in upstream and downstream fish yields, reservoir siltation, greenhouse gas emissions and mercury contamination. Together, these six dams are predicted to reduce the supply of sediments, phosphorus and nitrogen from the Andean region by 69, 67 and 57% and to the entire Amazon basin by 64, 51 and 23%, respectively. These large reductions in sediment and nutrient supplies will have major impacts on channel geomorphology, floodplain fertility and aquatic productivity. These effects will be greatest near the dams and extend to the lowland floodplains. Attenuation of the downstream flood pulse is expected to alter the survival, phenology and growth of floodplain vegetation and reduce fish yields below the dams. Reservoir filling times due to siltation are predicted to vary from 106–6240 years, affecting the storage performance of some dams. Total CO2 equivalent carbon emission from 4 Andean dams was expected to average 10 Tg y-1 during the first 30 years of operation, resulting in a MegaWatt weighted Carbon Emission Factor of 0.139 tons C MWhr-1. Mercury contamination in fish and local human populations is expected to increase both above and below the dams creating significant health risks. Reservoir fish yields will compensate some downstream losses, but increased mercury contamination could offset these benefits

Modelagem do crescimento do tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum Cuvier, 1816): Seleção de modelos e inferência multimodelos

The tambaqui, Colossoma macropomum, is one of the most commercially valuable Amazonian fish species, and in the floodplains of the region, they are caught in both rivers and lakes. Most growth studies on this species to date have adjusted only one growth model, the von Bertalanffy, without considering its possible uncertainties. In this study, four different models (von Bertalanffy, Logistic, Gompertz and the general model of Schnüte-Richards) were adjusted to a data set of fish caught within lakes from the middle Solimões River. These models were adjusted by non-linear equations, using the sample size of each age class as its weight. The adjustment evaluation of each model was based on the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), the variation of AIC between the models (Δi) and the evidence weights (wi). Both the Logistic (Δi = 0.0) and Gompertz (Δi = 1.12) models were supported by the data, but neither of them was clearly superior (wi, respectively 52.44 and 29.95%). Thus, we propose the use of an averaged-model to estimate the asymptotic length (L∞). The averaged-model, based on Logistic and Gompertz models, resulted in an estimate of L∞=90.36, indicating that the tambaqui would take approximately 25 years to reach average size

An explicit GIS-based river basin framework for aquatic ecosystem conservation in the Amazon

Despite large-scale infrastructure development, deforestation, mining and petroleum exploration in the Amazon Basin, relatively little attention has been paid to the management scale required for the protection of wetlands, fisheries and other aspects of aquatic ecosystems. This is due, in part, to the enormous size, multinational composition and interconnected nature of the Amazon River system, as well as to the absence of an adequate spatial model for integrating data across the entire Amazon Basin. In this data article we present a spatially uniform multi-scale GIS framework that was developed especially for the analysis, management and monitoring of various aspects of aquatic systems in the Amazon Basin. The Amazon GIS-Based River Basin Framework is accessible as an ESRI geodatabase at doi:10.5063/F1BG2KX8. © Author(s) 2016

Goliath catfish spawning in the far western Amazon confirmed by the distribution of mature adults, drifting larvae and migrating juveniles

We mapped the inferred long-distance migrations of four species of Amazonian goliath catfishes (Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii, B. platynemum, B. juruense and B. vaillantii) based on the presence of individuals with mature gonads and conducted statistical analysis of the expected long-distance downstream migrations of their larvae and juveniles. By linking the distribution of larval, juvenile and mature adult size classes across the Amazon, the results showed: (i) that the main spawning regions of these goliath catfish species are in the western Amazon; (ii) at least three species - B. rousseauxii, B. platynemum, and B. juruense - spawn partially or mainly as far upstream as the Andes; (iii) the main spawning area of B. rousseauxii is in or near the Andes; and (iv) the life history migration distances of B. rousseauxii are the longest strictly freshwater fish migrations in the world. These results provide an empirical baseline for tagging experiments, life histories extrapolated from otolith microchemistry interpretations and other methods to establish goliath catfish migratory routes, their seasonal timing and possible return (homing) to western headwater tributaries where they were born. © The Author(s) 2017

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio