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What governs the functional diversity patterns of fishes in the headwater streams of the humid forest enclaves: environmental conditions, taxonomic diversity or biotic interactions?

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Abstract

The relationship between functional and taxonomic diversity is a major issue in ecology. Biodiversity in aquatic environments is strongly influenced by environmental gradients that act as dispersion and niche barriers. Environmental conditions act as filters to select functional traits, but biotic interactions also play a role in assemblage structure. In headwater streams, the relationship between functional and taxonomic diversity remains unclear. In this study we investigated how environmental conditions, taxonomic diversity and biotic interactions influence the spatial distribution of traits and functional diversity in stream fish species. Standardized sampling of fish species was carried out in 50 m sections of 16 streams located in rainforest enclaves in a semiarid region of Brazil (Caatinga biome). The functional diversity indices displayed different responses to the predictor variables used. Functional richness was mainly influenced by environmental conditions, while functional evenness was mostly determined by taxonomic diversity. On the other hand, functional dispersion was explained by a combination of environmental conditions and taxonomic diversity. The spatial distribution of fish species with the same functional traits was random, indicating that biotic interactions are not a strong predictor in these ecosystems. Channel width, pH and substrate were the most important variables in the spatial distribution of the functional traits of the fish species. Our results suggest that the functional structure of fish assemblages in headwater streams depends mainly on environmental conditions and taxonomic diversity.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the staff at the UFC Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology. The study was funded by CNPq/PPBIO through grant #457463/2012-0 and by CNPq/ICMBio through grant #552009/2011-3. Also thanks to the Ministry of the Environment (MMA; 26174-2) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio/SISBIO; 32921-4) for granting licenses to collect fish samples. Finally, we are grateful to R. P. Leitão for his valuable suggestions and criticism of the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers who contributed to the improvement of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Avenida André Araújo 2936, Manaus, AM, 69060-001, Brazil

    Carlos Alberto Sousa Rodrigues-Filho

  2. Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Campus do Pici, Avenida Mister Hull, 2977, Fortaleza, CE, 60455-760, Brazil

    Ronaldo César Gurgel-Lourenço & Jorge Iván Sánchez-Botero

  3. Departamento de Botânica e Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Campus Universitário Lagoa Nova, Avenida Senador Salgado Filho, 3000, Natal, RN, 59078-900, Brazil

    Sergio Maia Queiroz Lima

  4. Departamento de Engenharia Ambiental, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Ambiental, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Campus Londrina, Avenida dos Pioneiros, 3131, Londrina, PR, 86036-370, Brazil

    Edson Fontes de Oliveira

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  1. Carlos Alberto Sousa Rodrigues-Filho
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Correspondence to Carlos Alberto Sousa Rodrigues-Filho.

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Rodrigues-Filho, C.A.S., Gurgel-Lourenço, R.C., Lima, S.M.Q. et al. What governs the functional diversity patterns of fishes in the headwater streams of the humid forest enclaves: environmental conditions, taxonomic diversity or biotic interactions?. Environ Biol Fish 100, 1023–1032 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-017-0603-4

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