Hypoxic environments as refuge against predatory fish in the Amazonian floodplains
Several groups of Amazonian fishes exhibit behavioral, morphological and physiological characteristics that allow occupying hypoxic environments, despite the energetic costs of living in such harsh conditions. One of the supposed advantages of occupying hypoxic habitats would be a lower predation pr...
| Autor principal: | Anjos, Maeda Batista dos |
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| Outros Autores: | Oliveira, Renildo Ribeiro de, Zuanon, Jansen |
| Grau: | Artigo |
| Idioma: | English |
| Publicado em: |
Revista Brasileira de Biologia
2020
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| Acesso em linha: |
https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/14827 |
| Resumo: |
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Several groups of Amazonian fishes exhibit behavioral, morphological and physiological characteristics that allow occupying hypoxic environments, despite the energetic costs of living in such harsh conditions. One of the supposed advantages of occupying hypoxic habitats would be a lower predation pressure resulting from a lower number of piscivorous fishes in those environments. We tested this hypothesis in an area of the Amazon River floodplain through gill net fishing in normoxic and hypoxic habitats. From the 103 species caught, 38 were classified as piscivores. We found no difference in the number of piscivorous species captured in hypoxic and normoxic habitats (χ2 = 0.23; p = 0.63; df = 1) but piscivorous individuals were more numerous in normoxic than in hypoxic sampling stations (χ2 = 104.4; p < 0.001; df = 1). This indicates that environments submitted to low oxygen conditions may in fact function as refuges against piscivorous fishes in the Amazonian floodplains. |