Title
Species-level ichthyoplankton dynamics for 97 fishes in two major river basins of the Amazon using quantitative metabarcoding
Author(s)
Mariac, Cédric; Renno, Jean‐François; Garcia-Davila, Carmen; Vigouroux, Yves; Mejia, Eduardo; Angulo, Carlos; Castro Ruiz, Diana; Estivals, Guillain; Nolorbe, Christian; García Vasquez, Aurea; Nuñez, Jesus; Cochonneau, Gérard; Flores, Mayra; Alvarado, Jhon; Vertiz, José; Chota, Werner; Sánchez, Homero; Miranda, Guido; Duponchelle, Fabrice
Published
2022
Publisher
Molecular Ecology
Abstract
The Amazon basin holds the world’s largest freshwater fish diversity. Information on the intensity and timing of reproductive ecology of Amazonian fish are scant. We use a metabarcoding method by capture using a single probe to quantify species‐level ichthyoplankton dynamics. We sampled monthly for two years the Marañón and the Ucayali rivers in Peru. We identified 97 species that spawned mainly during the flood start, the flood end, or the receding periods, although some species had spawning activity in more than one period. This information was new for 40 of the species in the Amazon basin and 80 species in Peru. Most species ceased spawning for a month during a strong hydrological anomaly in January 2016, demonstrating the rapidity with which they react to environmental modifications during the breeding season. We also document another unreported event in the Amazon basin, the inverse phenology of species belonging to a same genus (Triportheus). The overall larval flow in the Marañón was more than twice that of the Ucayali, including for most commercial species (between 2 and 20 times higher), whereas the Ucayali accounts for ~ 80% of the fisheries landings in the region. Our results are discussed in the light of the main anthropogenic threats to fishes, hydropower dam construction and the Hidrovía Amazónica, and should serve as a pre‐impact baseline.
Keywords
capture; fish larvae; Marañón; metabarcoding; phenology; Ucayali
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PUB26354