Estrutura da ictiofauna reofílica do rio Xingu, Amazônia Brasileira: efeitos ambientais, espaciais e temporais no padrão de distribuição das espécies

Abstract

Rapids and waterfalls are environments that have extreme and peculiar environmental characteristics when compared to other river stretches. These sites harbor fish species with unique ecological characteristics, with remarkable morphological and behavioral specializations related to the life in structurally complex environments with fast and turbulent waters. In this study we evaluated the structure of the ichthyofauna in the rapids of Xingu River, aiming to a better understanding of the fish assemblage composition and its spatial and temporal variations. We recorded 160 fish species in the rapids, belonging to 97 genera, 25 families and seven orders. Characiformes presented the highest number of families, and Siluriformes the highest number of species. Fifty-two species are endemic to the Xingu River, 11 species are officially considered under some degree of extinction risk, and not all species are protected by the large mosaic of conservation units in the Xingu River basin. The stretch corresponding to the Volta Grande do Xingu harbors the highest diversity of rheophilic fishes along the analyzed stretch of the river, and some species apparently occur only in that stretch. The Volta Grande do Xingu is one of the largest continuous rapids in the world, but the structure of the fish assemblages of this region varies both seasonaly and regarding local habitat characteristics. The largest variations were observed between the main channel rapids of the Xingu and Bacajá rivers, and between the flooding period compared to the receding and dought periods. Although some species occurred in just a few sites or were more abundant in some periods of the hydrologic cycle, several species occurred in all sampling sites and periods, highlighting the possible role of habitat connectivity along the rapids continuum. However, additional analyses of the distribution and abundance of Loricariidae species in Volta Grande evidenced the role of spatial factors acting at different distance scales, which together with the local structure of microhabitats are essential for the maintenance of the loricariid diversity. Food availability did not have a major influence on the structure of Loricariid assemblages, apparently due to the high availability of food items from epilithic and benthic macroinvertebrates. Despite the biological importance of waterfalls and rapids environments, especially those of Volta Grande, a hydroelectric megadam is installed in the region and a huge gold mining project is being licensed, threatening one of the world's most spectacular river rapids.