Fish diversity and species composition in small-scale artificial reefs in Amazonian floodplain lakes: Refugia for rare species?

Checklist of the ichthyofauna of the Rio Negro basin in the Brazilian Amazon

“…In lakes and tributary rivers, migratory species of Characiformes and Siluriformes presented the highest frequency and abundance (Zuanon et al 1998; Saint-Paul et al 2000; Lima et al 2005; Soares and Yamamoto 2005; Zuanon et al 2008; Yamamoto et al 2014). Many species occurring in these environments are also common and abundant in white water floodplains of the Solimões/Amazonas system, and in other tributaries of the Amazon Basin (Ferreira 1993; Rapp Py-Daniel et al 2007; Lima and Caires 2011), and are of great commercial importance (Goulding 1980; Junk et al 1983; Bayley 1983, 1998, Saint-Paul et al 2000; Ruffino et al 2006; Soares et al 2007).…”

“…180 fish species that were donated to the Museum of Natural History of London; such pictorial records were later found in the museum archives and published in a book by Toledo-Piza Ragazzo (2002). In addition to the seminal work of Goulding et al (1988), more recent studies have provided complementary information regarding the Rio Negro fish fauna, which include ecological studies of the main river channel (Chao et al 2001; Thomé-Souza and Chao 2004; Ferreira et al 2007; Rapp Py-Daniel et al 2017), lakes and flooded forest areas (igapós) (Garcia 1993; Saint Paul et al 2000; Soares and Yamamoto 2005; Ferreira et al 2007; Noveras et al 2012; Yamamoto et al 2014; Farias et al 2017; Beltrão and Soares 2018), seasonal beaches and rapids (Lima et al 2005; Ferreira et al 2007), streams and small marginal ponds (Knöppel 1970; Silva 1993, 1995; Mendonça et al 2005; Pazin et al 2006; Anjos and Zuanon 2007; Zuanon et al 2015; Beltrão and Soares 2018), interfluvial swamps (Chao and Prada-Pedreros 1995), flooded Savannah-like areas (Ferreira et al 2007), as well as ichthyofaunal inventories of specific tributaries (Henderson and Walker 1986; Chao and Prada-Pedreros 1995; Zuanon et al 1998; Lima et al 2005; Ferreira et al 2007; Zuanon et al 2008; Kemenes and Forsberg 2014; Rapp Py-Daniel et al 2017). This study aimed to make a comprehensive survey of the fish species present in the Rio Negro basin, as well as to analyze the fish diversity associated to the different aquatic environments present in the basin (Goulding et al 1988).…”

Use of artificial structures to enhance fish diversity in the Youjiang River, a dammed river of the Pearl River in China

“…Yamamoto et al. (2014) revealed that artificial habitats may provide habitat for some rare species. They found that 26 species of fish, which were rare species in the area, were recorded only in artificial habitats; the artificial habitats could provide shelter for these species during drought periods and reduce their risk of predation (Yamamoto et al., 2014).…”

“…Artificial habitats are constructed to mimic some of the characteristics of a natural habitat in aquatic environments and to increase structural complexity for aquatic organisms in systems where natural habitats are unavailable or absent (Bolding et al., 2004). Many types of artificial habitats have been designed and used as conservation and management tools in freshwater and marine environments, including tree branches, polypropylene ribbons, tyres, ceramic, concrete, and PVC (Santos et al., 2008; Santos, Agostinho, et al., 2011; Santos, García‐Berthou, et al., 2011; Yamamoto et al., 2014; Freitas & Petrere, 2001; Čech et al, 2012; Nash et al., 1999). Numerous studies have been conducted to elucidate the role of artificial habitats for fisheries management all over the world, including the use of artificial habitats to attract fish or other organisms and increase their abundance (Hellyer et al., 2011; Jones & Tonn, 2004; Sherman et al., 2002; Sosa‐Cordero et al., 1998; Wills et al., 2004), to provide spawning substrates and increase fish recruitment (Pickering & Whitmarsh, 1997; Sandström & Karås, 2002), to offer shelter for juvenile fish (Höjesjö et al., 2015), to mediate the effects of introduced species on native species (Rahel et al., 2008; Santos, Agostinho, et al., 2011; Santos, García‐Berthou, et al., 2011; Santos et al., 2008), and to mitigate the drawdown impacts on fishes (Benoit & Legault, 2002; Santos et al., 2008).…”

Assessment of Water Quality and Thermal Stress for an Artificial Fish Shelter in an Urban Small Pond during Early Summer

“…As mentioned, since excessive rises in water temperature in aquatic environments can be detrimental to the reproduction and growth of fish, there has been ongoing research into the functions of fish shelters [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Previous studies have found that fish shelters can be used to prevent untimely predator encounters [14,15], to enable the survival of physical disturbance events such as floods or droughts, and to maintain or increase fish populations through enhancing survival rates [19].…”