I collected fish samples and habitat data at 43 sites throughout the upper Roanoke River watershed, Virginia. Sites were separated into three watershed areas size classes: 10 - 15, 20 - 30, and 70 - 80 km². I correlated physical in-stream conditions with proportions of forest, disturbed, and herbaceous/agricultural land at various watershed-scales to determine factors affecting stream habitat. I grouped fishes into metrics commonly used in indexes of biotic integrity and created a multimetric index called the mean metric score to represent fish communities at sites. Fish variables and metric values were compared with stream habitat and watershed variables to determine primary influences on fish communities. I correlated land use at 24 spatial scales, which differed by buffer width and stream network area, with mean metric scores to determine zones of greatest influence on fish communities. In-stream habitat conditions and amounts of forest, herbaceous/agricultural, and disturbed land varied greatly among sites. Habitat varied due to natural differences among sites, such as elevation and watershed area, and due to land use. Disturbed land use was greatest at lower elevations while forests were more abundant at higher elevations. Substrate size distribution was highly correlated with all three land use types at several spatial scales. Correlations between land use within various buffers and median particle size became stronger as larger proportions of watersheds were included in analysis. Fish species richness increased from small to large sites by species addition. Species collected at small sites were also collected at large sites, but several species collected at large sites were absent elsewhere. For example, orangefin madtoms and bigeye jumprocks were only collected at three large sites. Fish distribution was a result of several factors such as watershed area, elevation, proportions of pools and of riffles, particle size, and land use within buffers and entire watersheds. Sites with high mean metric scores were primarily limited to tributaries of the North and South Forks of the Roanoke River. Most sites with low mean metric scores were located near the cities of Roanoke and Salem. Forest and disturbed land use were highly correlated with mean metric scores. Elevation was also highly correlated with mean metric scores but herbaceous/agricultural land use was not. Correlations between percent forest within 24 buffers and mean metric scores were highest for small stream network areas and declined as more land farther from sites was included for analysis. Correlations between disturbed land use and mean metric scores were strong regardless of the area considered. Mean metric scores declined precipitously as disturbed land use within watersheds and buffers increased from 0 to 10 %, but reached a plateau at 10 to 20 % after which increases in disturbed land use did not result in lower mean metric scores. My results suggest that species addition and ecological shifts from more generalized to more specialized species occur with increased stream size. Forested buffers are important for maintaining ecological integrity, and buffers along sites with adequate integrity should be candidates for riparian restoration. Future development should be concentrated in watersheds that are already developed and reforestation of riparian areas in developed watersheds may reduce the impacts of watershed-level disturbance. / Master of Science

Orientador: Miguel Petrere Júnior / Banca: Mauricio Cetra / Banca: Yzel Rondon Súarez / Resumo: Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a estrutura das assembléias de peixes de riachos na planície costeira da bacia do rio Itanhaém, litoral sul do estado de São Paulo. A bacia fica próxima de grandes centros urbanos, mas ainda apresenta, em vários pontos, uma vegetação bem preservada, sobretudo nas áreas do Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar. Até o momento inexistiam dados sobre a composição da ictiofauna de seus riachos, e os poucos trabalhos publicados restringem-se aos canais principais e à região estuarina. Na planície costeira há dois tipos de riachos: (i) de águas claras e bem oxigenadas e (ii) riachos de restinga, de águas escuras, ácidas e com pouco oxigênio dissolvido. O estado de preservação do entorno varia desde trechos com vegetação ripária bem estruturada a locais onde esta vegetação foi completamente removida para a implementação de agricultura. As coletas foram feitas trimestralmente em oito riachos distribuídos em quatro sub-bacias (dos rios Branco, Mambú, Preto e nos riachos de restinga). Os peixes foram capturados com um aparelho de pesca elétrica, percorrendo um trecho de 50 m do sentido jusante-montante. Depois de capturados, foram fixados em formol 10% e, em laboratório identificados, medidos e pesados. Em campo foram medidas as variáveis de temperatura (°C), pH, turbidez (NTU), condutividade (mScm-1) e oxigênio dissolvido, calculando os valores médios (após três leituras), a estrutura física do canal e o estado de preservação do entorno. A riqueza total foi calculada por estimadores não paramétricos. Curvas de acumulação de espécies foram utilizadas para avaliar a eficiência destes estimadores e para comparar a proporção de espécies acidentais em cada sub-bacia. As distribuições de espécieabundância em peso foram ajustadas a modelos estocásticos de partição de recursos, e as relações... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The main objective of this dissertation was to study the stream fish assemblage structure of the coastal plain of the Itanhaem river basin, in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Fish collections were accomplished in eight streams, sampled four times during the year of 2006, in the months of February, May, August and November, in four sub-basins (of the rivers Branco, Mambu, Preto and in sandbank streams). The Itahaem river basin is close to large urban centers, but it still presents, in several points, a well preserved surrounding vegetation, mainly in the areas of the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, a poorly studied site. In the coastal plain there are two types of streams: (i) clearwaters, which are very oxygenated and (ii) blackwaters sandbank streams, poorly oxygenated and with acidic waters. The surroundings varies from stretches with marginal vegetation well preserved to places it was completely cleared for agriculture. The fish were caught with an electric fishing apparatus, along a 50 m stretch upriver, each time. The fish were preserved in 10% formalin and, in laboratory identified (species level), measured (SL) and weighed (g, total). In the field the following traits were measured: temperature (oC), pH, turbidity (NTU), conductivity (æScm-1) and dissolved oxygen (mg/l), when calculating the mean of three successive readings. The physical structure of the channel and the vegetation status were visually assessed. Fish richness was calculated by non-parametric estimators. Accumulation species curves were drawed to evaluate the efficiency of these estimators and to compare the proportion of accidental species in each sub-basin. The species-abundance distributions in weight were adjusted to resource partitioning stochastic models , and the relationships of these with the distributions in numbers were verified by W statistics... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This research tested the ability of fish morphology to predict membership of fishes in habitat guilds, their swimming performance, and habitat preference. Further, it considered methods for choosing a surrogate species to identify habitat of target species. Morphological discriminant functions were developed using morphological traits of fishes from one river to identify membership in two habitat guild systems (mesohabitat and microhabitat). Functions were then used to test factors influencing classification success of holdout tests and validated using fishes of a second river. Morphology was only partly successful (50%) at predicting membership in habitat guilds. Morphology identified species by shape, i.e., classifying test species into guilds with members of their genus, but not habitat use, because morphology and habitat were not strongly linked through function. By improving guild definition, relationships between morphology and habitat (Froude number) were identified for all fish groups examined (darters, benthic minnows, pelagic minnows, and suckers). Relationships were not transferable among groups. Further, morphology of eight minnows was linked to swimming performance, a key task for using habitat, in lab measurements of critical swimming speeds. In turn, swimming performance was related to habitat (Froude number). Morphology will be most successful at predicting habitat use of fishes when (1) more, discrete guilds are used, (2) guilds are identified within families, (3) variation in lifestyles (benthic vs. pelagic) is considered, and (4) key tasks related to using habitat are strongly associated with morphology. Finally, I examined a phylogenetic approach to identifying useable habitat. Closely related surrogate species were not more accurate in identifying habitat of target species than surrogates chosen by other methods. When a target species used only one mesohabitat, the highest overlap in habitat use occurred with other fishes of the same family using that mesohabitat (within a physiographic province). For target species using several mesohabitat types, surrogates from the next highest taxonomic unit, e.g., genus or subgenus, provided the most accurate information. Ecomorphology offers a mechanistic and defensible method for identifying habitat preferences of fishes and should be more widely considered as a tool for establishing habitat relationships of stream fishes. / Ph. D.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:32:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5884.pdf: 1894395 bytes, checksum: 2133839c319e8789b185c3b67f243db9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-10 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The analyses of the relative condition factor in fish community and of the benthic macroinvertebrates communities structure were used as a tool for assessing the influence of disturbances and water quality in the tropical streams of the upper portion of Monjolinho River basin, São Carlos, SP, Brazil. The condition factor revealed different responses of the fish species regarding the organic pollution effect. Astyanax cf paranae was found to be a sensitive species, Phalloceros harpagos to be tolerant, and Poecilia reticulate to be resistant. The analysis of the benthic macroinvertebrate community structure showed that these populations are affected by the loss of environmental quality, resulting in great differences in species diversity, with the absence of groups considered sensitive to pollution and dominance of resistant groups. In this portion of the Monjolinho River basin it was possible to identify streams with high environmental integrity as the Espraiado stream, up to strongly polluted streams as the Belvedere stream. / O fator de condição relativo em peixes e a análise da estrutura da comunidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos foram utilizados como ferramenta de avaliação de distúrbios nos córregos afluentes da porção superior da bacia do rio Monjolinho, São Carlos, SP, Brasil. O uso do fator condição relativo dos peixes evidenciou diferentes respostas desses organismos à poluição orgânica, tendo a espécie Astyanax cf paranae sido sensível; a espécie Phalloceros harpagos, tolerante e a espécie Poecilia reticulata, resistente. Já a análise da estrutura da comunidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos evidenciou que essas populações são afetadas pela perda da qualidade ambiental, resultando, em geral, menor diversidade e ausência de grupos considerados sensíveis à poluição e dominância de grupos resistentes. Nessa porção da bacia do Rio Monjolinho foram identificados desde córregos com alta integridade ambiental, como o córrego do Espraiado, até córregos fortemente poluídos, como o Belvedere.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-10-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:20:37Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ferreira_fc_me_rcla.pdf: 2357535 bytes, checksum: c1b2e74d538474125fecbdac110f9cd4 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a estrutura das assembléias de peixes de riachos na planície costeira da bacia do rio Itanhaém, litoral sul do estado de São Paulo. A bacia fica próxima de grandes centros urbanos, mas ainda apresenta, em vários pontos, uma vegetação bem preservada, sobretudo nas áreas do Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar. Até o momento inexistiam dados sobre a composição da ictiofauna de seus riachos, e os poucos trabalhos publicados restringem-se aos canais principais e à região estuarina. Na planície costeira há dois tipos de riachos: (i) de águas claras e bem oxigenadas e (ii) riachos de restinga, de águas escuras, ácidas e com pouco oxigênio dissolvido. O estado de preservação do entorno varia desde trechos com vegetação ripária bem estruturada a locais onde esta vegetação foi completamente removida para a implementação de agricultura. As coletas foram feitas trimestralmente em oito riachos distribuídos em quatro sub-bacias (dos rios Branco, Mambú, Preto e nos riachos de restinga). Os peixes foram capturados com um aparelho de pesca elétrica, percorrendo um trecho de 50 m do sentido jusante-montante. Depois de capturados, foram fixados em formol 10% e, em laboratório identificados, medidos e pesados. Em campo foram medidas as variáveis de temperatura (°C), pH, turbidez (NTU), condutividade (mScm-1) e oxigênio dissolvido, calculando os valores médios (após três leituras), a estrutura física do canal e o estado de preservação do entorno. A riqueza total foi calculada por estimadores não paramétricos. Curvas de acumulação de espécies foram utilizadas para avaliar a eficiência destes estimadores e para comparar a proporção de espécies acidentais em cada sub-bacia. As distribuições de espécieabundância em peso foram ajustadas a modelos estocásticos de partição de recursos, e as relações... / The main objective of this dissertation was to study the stream fish assemblage structure of the coastal plain of the Itanhaem river basin, in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Fish collections were accomplished in eight streams, sampled four times during the year of 2006, in the months of February, May, August and November, in four sub-basins (of the rivers Branco, Mambu, Preto and in sandbank streams). The Itahaem river basin is close to large urban centers, but it still presents, in several points, a well preserved surrounding vegetation, mainly in the areas of the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar, a poorly studied site. In the coastal plain there are two types of streams: (i) clearwaters, which are very oxygenated and (ii) blackwaters sandbank streams, poorly oxygenated and with acidic waters. The surroundings varies from stretches with marginal vegetation well preserved to places it was completely cleared for agriculture. The fish were caught with an electric fishing apparatus, along a 50 m stretch upriver, each time. The fish were preserved in 10% formalin and, in laboratory identified (species level), measured (SL) and weighed (g, total). In the field the following traits were measured: temperature (oC), pH, turbidity (NTU), conductivity (æScm-1) and dissolved oxygen (mg/l), when calculating the mean of three successive readings. The physical structure of the channel and the vegetation status were visually assessed. Fish richness was calculated by non-parametric estimators. Accumulation species curves were drawed to evaluate the efficiency of these estimators and to compare the proportion of accidental species in each sub-basin. The species-abundance distributions in weight were adjusted to resource partitioning stochastic models , and the relationships of these with the distributions in numbers were verified by W statistics... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:30:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6147.pdf: 5742623 bytes, checksum: c8c36ae76a987b5bc30a219a1f3c9bee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-06-06 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / The objective of this study was to analyze the structure, composition, trophic ecology and food items shared by the fish fauna in the stream Beija -Flor, located in Jataí Ecological Station ( 21 ⁰ 36'32 .8 " S 47 ⁰ 48'0 .54 " W ), besides characterizing the trophic ecology of the species Hemigrammus marginatus, one of the most abundant in the Beija-Flor stream. The samples of fish were collected monthly from August 2011 to July 2012, using gill nets, trawl nets and baited traps in five sampling stations distributed along the Beija-Flor stream. The fish were fixed in 10% formalin in the field and in the laboratory were identified and subjected to biometric measurements. The stomachs were weighed and transferred to 70% alcohol and stomach contents were examined under a stereomicroscope to the lowest possible taxonomic level. Forty four fish species belonging to 33 genera, 16 families and 5 orders were collected. Most species were accidental ( 43.18 % ), followed by constant species ( 38.64 % ) and accessory (18.18 % ). The diet of 30 species was analyzed. The main dietary habit was insectivorous, followed by omnivorous habits, herbivorous, piscivorous and detritivore. The dietary overlap was high in several species during periods of dry and flood. Hemigrammus marginatus was classified as an insectivore. Food items of autochthonous origin of the orders Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera were more important during the dry season, while the items of allochthonous origin of the order Hymenoptera, were more important in the rainy season. The increase in the quantity and variety of food items during the flooding causes some species of fish to become more generalist and share food resources. Hemigrammus marginatus, Astyanax altiparanae, Metynnis maculatus, Serrapinnus notomelas and Oligosarcus pintoi, have complex of interactions with the food items and can be considered key species for stream Beija- Flor. The results showed that the stream Beija-Flor is a preserved, with high species diversity by being located within the Jataí Ecological Station, but is highly threatened by being surrounded by sugar cane plantations. / O Córrego Beija-Flor, localizado na Estação Ecológica de Jataí (21⁰36 32.8 S 47⁰48 0.54 W), é formado pelos córregos da Bandeira, do Jordão e das Cabaças, e deságua no rio Mogi-Guaçu, bacia do alto Paraná. O objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar a estrutura, a composição, a ecologia trófica, e o compartilhamento de itens alimentares pela ictiofauna e caracterizar a ecologia trófica da espécie Hemigrammus marginatus, uma das espécies mais abundantes do córrego Beija-Flor. As coletas de peixes foram realizadas mensalmente no período de agosto de 2011 a julho de 2012, utilizando-se redes de espera, rede de arrasto e armadilhas iscadas do tipo covo, em cinco estações de coleta distribuídas ao longo do córrego Beija-Flor. Os peixes foram fixados em formol 10% no campo e em laboratório foram identificados e submetidos a medidas biométricas. Os estômagos foram pesados e transferidos para álcool 70% e o conteúdo estomacal foi analisado em estereomicroscópio até o menor nível taxonômico possível. Foram coletadas 44 espécies de peixes pertencentes a 33 gêneros, 16 famílias e 5 ordens. A maioria das espécies foi de ocorrência acidental (43,18 %), seguida pelas espécies constantes (38,64 %) e acessórias (18,18 %). A dieta de 30 espécies foi analisada. O principal hábito alimentar foi insetívoro, seguido pelos hábitos onívoro, herbívoro, piscívoro e detritívoro. A sobreposição alimentar foi alta em diversas espécies nos períodos de seca e cheia. Hemigrammus marginatus foi considerado insetívoro. Os itens alimentares de origem autóctone das ordens Ephemeroptera e Trichoptera foram mais importantes no período de seca, enquanto os itens de origem alóctone, da ordem Hymenoptera, tiveram maior importância no período de cheia. O aumento na quantidade e variedade de itens alimentares no período de cheia faz com que algumas espécies de peixes se tornem mais generalistas e partilhem os recursos alimentares. Hemigrammus marginatus, Astyanax altiparanae, Metynnis maculatus, Serrapinnus notomelas e Oligosarcus pintoi, possuem um complexo de interações com os itens alimentares e podem ser consideradas espécies chaves para o córrego Beija- Flor. Os resultados mostraram que o córrego Beija-Flor é um riacho preservado, com alta diversidade de espécies por estar localizado dentro da Estação Ecológica de Jataí, mas encontra-se fortemente ameaçado por estar cercado por plantações de cana de açúcar.