Fishes of Alto Jacuí sub-basin: a poorly studied sub-basin of northwestern Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

The streams in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (mainly in the Alto Jacuí sub-basin belonging to the Laguna dos Patos system) have scarce information about their ichthyofauna. Thereby for providing information about stream species, the purpose of the present study was to inventory the ichthyofauna of the streams of the Alto Jacuí sub-basin, located in northwestern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The samples were taken bimonthly from June 2012 to June 2013 using electrofishing technique in 10 streams. A total of 13,247 specimens were collected belonging to 42 species, 10 families and six orders. We report the occurrence of five new species that have not yet been described by researchers.

Fishes community composition and patterns of species distribution in Neotropical streams

“…Freshwater ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts that often promote the proliferation of some populations in the face of the decline, or even the extinction of others (Agostinho et al 1999, Bailly et al 2016. In streams, the susceptibility to these impacts may be higher because of the reduced size of these habitats and the sensitivity of microhabitats (Galves et al 2009, Bonato & Fialho 2016. The fishes community is an indicator of the biological integrity of freshwater systems (Moore et al 1997) and the knowledge of streams ichthyofauna is an informative tool to propose mitigation measures to these impacts (Vidotto-Magnoni et al 2015).…”