Distribution patterns of the fish assemblage in the Mamanguape River Estuary, North-eastern Brazil

ABSTRACT

The Mamanguape River Estuary was studied along a continuum ranging from shallow sandstone reefs adjacent to the river mouth up to the limit of influence of seawater, the upper portions of the estuary. Fish samples were gathered using three types of nets along 17 sample sites, grouped in four regions according to salinity range (reefs and low, middle and upper estuaries), to seasonality (dry and rainy seasons) and to habitat usage (marine visitor, marine estuarine-opportunist, marine estuarine-dependent, estuarine resident and estuarine & marine). Differences were found in the fish assemblages along the estuarine-reef gradient, with most species (n = 30) being considered marine, estuarine-opportunists or estuarine-dependent, according to its abundance and distribution. A low number of species (n = 11) were considered estuarine residents. Some species exhibited significant differences in spatial distribution pattern, in which juveniles and adults predominated in different portions of the estuary, suggesting an ontogenetic migration both in relation to the adjacent reef area and across estuarine regions. Several species were newly recorded in the Mamanguape Estuary: Anchoa spinifer, Halichoeres poeyi, Hyporhamphus roberti, Scomberomorus cavalla, Sphyraena barracuda and Ocgocephalus vesperilio.

SUBJECT EDITOR:

• Audrey Geffen

KEYWORDS:

• Estuarine usage
• salinity range
• estuarine-reef gradient
• seasonality
• ontogeny

Acknowledgements

We thank the PADI Foundation for financial support and the Coordination for the Training of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for the scholarship provided to the first author. We also thank the specialists in the Systematics and Ecology Department at Universidade Federal da Paraíba for the taxonomic help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Aline Paiva Morais Medeiros http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7272-4441

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by PADI Foundation [grant number 3,600].