Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time, and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space. While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes, vast areas of the tropics remain understudied. In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity, but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases. To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge, 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 organism 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 neglected 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 lost

Urban market amplifies strong species selectivity in amazonian artisanal fisheries

Despite Amazonia possessing the highest freshwater biodiversity on Earth, urban landing data show how huge fishing pressure is placed on only a dozen species. However, truly characterising the fishery and understanding the drivers of species selectivity is challenging, given the neglect of artisanal fishing activity, who may catch most of the Amazon’s fish. We register the catch of 824 fishing trips by interviewing artisanal fishers in their rural riverside communities. We use these data to characterise the artisanal fishery of the Rio Purus, the main fish source sub-system for the Amazon’s largest city (Manaus), and investigate the factors determining catch composition. Fishers caught 80 fish species, yet just four species made up over half of the harvested biomass. Urban markets appear to drive greater selectivity, with a significantly lower species diversity in commercial compared to subsistence catches. Fish catch composition varied significantly both seasonally and with geographical remoteness from Manaus. The spatial turnover in catch composition appears to be driven by urban access, with more commercially important species dominating where Manaus-based fish-buyers frequent. Our data may partially explain observed overfishing in some commercially important species, particularly as most Amazonians now live in urban areas

Hydroacoustic evaluation of the spatial and temporal distribution of fish in the upstream proximity of a dam in a Neotropical reservoir

Background. Construction of dams alters the physical, chemical, and ecological characteristics of the aquatic environment and modifies fish behaviour and the community composition. Few studies have shown the diel and seasonal fish distribution in tropical reservoirs, mainly in the proximity of the dam, where the risk of injury and death of fishes, which try to migrate downstream, is high. Thus, the data obtained in these regions can encourage actions that may attenuate the impacts on ichthyofauna. Hydroacoustic sampling is an effective tool to study fish behaviour and their spatial distribution in water bodies. In this context, the aim of this study was to evaluate the spatial and seasonal distribution of fish in the reservoir of Três Marias (Minas Gerais, Brazil), immediately upstream of the dam, using hydroacoustic and gillnet sampling. Materials and methods. Hydroacoustics and gillnet sampling were carried out both during the day and at night, and during the rainy and dry seasons. For the acquisition of hydroacoustic data, we employed an echosounder (BioSonics DT-X Digital Scientific) with a split-beam digital transducer. For the biological data, gillnets of different mesh sizes were set. Results. Hydroacoustic data showed significant differences in fish depth between day and night surveys, with fish remaining in deeper water during the day, a phenomenon known as Diel Vertical Migration. Furthermore, hydroacoustic data showed that smaller fish (estimated by “target strength”) concentrate at smaller depths. There was no significant difference in the size of fish between seasons. Limnological and operation variables were not related to the fish  abundance. Distribution maps showed that during the day fishes were distributed in areas more distant from the dam, while at night they were closer to the dam. Gillnets sampled 127 individuals of 22 species and 57.5% of the collected specimens were migratory species. Conclusion. These results can contribute to the understanding of fish behaviour in reservoirs, as well as provide an empirical basis for the development of novel fish management measures for Neotropical dams

Tropical headwater streams and the role of non-native species on fish assemblage’s diversity

Non-native species cause several impacts on freshwater biodiversity, but studies focusing on the Neotropical stream’s biota are still incipient. We used a data set of 586 headwater stream’s fish assemblages from the Brazilian Upper Paraná ecoregion to test whether the presence/absence of non-native species affect: species richness (S), functional diversity (MPD) and taxonomic diversity (Δ+). We compared diversity patterns of fish assemblages formed only by native species against those of assemblages formed by native and non-native species (Scenario 1); then, we removed non-native species from their original assemblages and recalculated their diversity values to compare them with those of fish assemblages formed only by native species again (Scenario 2). We also investigated: (1) whether non-native’s fish assemblages are associated with land use, topographic and watercourse connectivity variables; (2) fish ecological traits-environment relationship. In Scenario 1, S was higher in assemblages with the presence of non-native species, while in Scenario 2, both S and MPD were higher in assemblages where non-native species were removed. Non-native species were not directly related to land use, topographic or connectivity variables and most of them had a similar response to the environment when compared with native species. Findings show that non-native fish species are related to high-rich assemblages in headwaters, and they increase species richness and the functional redundancy of assemblages, decreasing functional diversity. Moreover, in most cases, native and non-native species seem to respond similarly to the environmental influence on their occurrence