Ecomorfologia e organização espacial da assembleia de peixes em reservatórios

Abstract

Predict how biological characteristics of the species fit the peculiarities of habitats is a key issue in ecology. Morphology assists in understanding this process, which is important for evaluating the effects of the habitat disturbances in the aquatic community, while reservoirs are complex ecosystems with ideal spatial gradients to examine the habitat s effect on species distribution. Thus, the hypothesis evaluated is that the species which share similar characteristics to form groups occupy similar habitats. Samples of fish were performed in longitudinal and transverse gradients for 3 years and selected 14-18 adults of each species were selected for morphometry. Mantel s and Partial Mantel s Tests identified relationships between spatial distribution, ecomorphological index and the phylogenetic distances. By non-metric multidimensional scaling and permutational multivariate analysis of variance it was identified that both, longitudinal and transversal gradients, had influence on species distribution, but the transversal gradient was the most influential on the abundance of species. From common species, according to Indicator Species Analysis (INDVAL), six were indicators of the littoral zone, three were indicators of deep zone, and two were indicators of the pelagic zone end four species occurred in more than one. Canonical Discriminate analysis was used to identify ecomorphological index that contributed to groups of species formed at INDVAL. Index related to head and mouth separate the species of the deep zone from littoral and pelagic ones, while body form and eye separated the pelagic from littoral zone. The morphology helped to define groups of species according to transversal gradient. The littoral zone had the greatest number of indicator species and greater morphological diversity than the pelagic and deep zones of Salto Santiago Reservoir, representing the importance of this habitat for species. Among the pelagic zone and deep, the morphology of the species is more specialized in locomotion and foraging, demonstrating the close relationship between habitat and morphology