Seasonality of stranded tetrapod fauna in the Paraty Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

The high biological productivity presented along the Brazilian coast guarantees availability of resources and also protects a diverse community of marine tetrapods. Physical and biological factors can influence in these animal mortality rates and the analysis of stranding patterns helps to comprehend the external threats, as anthropic. We analysed the effects of seasonality in richness and abundance of marine tetrapods stranded between 2016 and 2020 in the Paraty Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In total, 588 strandings were recorded, Chelonia mydas as being the species with more abundance, followed by Sula leucogaster and Sotalia guianensis. Among the 28 species, birds richness were the highest, followed by marine mammals and reptiles. There was no significant difference in the numbers of stranding records throughout the different seasons. There was more similarity in the assemblies between spring and summer. Birds and reptiles had stranding records distributed mostly in winter and spring, with the majority of marine mammals stranding being concentrated during the spring season. The strandings patterns of marine tetrapods throughout a temporal sequence in the Paraty Bay generated data that can provide animal behavior understandings and population distributions of marine tetrapods and supplement data for management plans and conservation.