Tropical estuaries are diverse and productive habitats with respect to their fish assemblages and associated fisheries, but these ecosystems and fisheries are imperiled by multiple anthropogenic threats. Despite the economic, social, and biodiversity value of tropical estuarine fish assemblages, they are poorly understood, especially those on Caribbean islands. We sampled the fish assemblages of four estuaries that were broadly representative of riverine estuaries in Puerto Rico, including the Río Grande de Arecibo, Río Espiritu Santo, Río Mameyes, and Río Sabana. We used a combination of passive (gill nets) and active (seine) gears at locations that spanned the salinity gradient of each estuary during July–October 2013–2014 (rainy season) and March 2015 (dry season). Fish species richness among the riverine estuaries varied from 18 to 29 and was highest in the Río Espiritu Santo estuary. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling differentiated fish assemblages among estuaries but not by season or consistently by location within an estuary. Spearman's rank correlation analysis also revealed dissimilarity among each estuary's fish assemblage, as most pairwise correlations between the species compositions were not significant. We identified common and widespread species among estuaries, including sport fishes, such as the Tarpon Megalops atlanticus and Common Snook Centropomus undecimalis. As the only multi‐river assessment of riverine estuary fish assemblages in Puerto Rico, our results provide the best available information about the spatial variability of assemblages and fisheries resources. This information will benefit future conservation and fisheries management efforts, which are needed due to increasing anthropogenic impacts, such as illegal harvest, invasive species, and water diversions.

中文翻译：

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波多黎各河口的鱼类组合和渔业资源

就其鱼群和相关渔业而言，热带河口是多种多样的生产性生境，但这些生态系统和渔业受到多种人为威胁的困扰。尽管热带河口鱼类组合具有经济，社会和生物多样性价值，但人们对其了解甚少，尤其是在加勒比岛屿上。我们从波多黎各的四个大致代表河口的河口取样，包括里奥格兰德·阿雷西博，里奥·埃斯皮里图·桑托，里奥·马梅耶斯和里奥·萨瓦纳。我们在2013年7月至10月（雨季）和2015年3月（旱季）跨各河口盐度梯度的位置使用了被动（刺网）和主动（围网）齿轮的组合。沿河河口的鱼类物种丰富度从18到29不等，在圣伊斯皮里图河河口最高。非度量多维缩放在河口之间区分鱼群，但不是按季节，也不是根据河口内的位置一致。Spearman的秩相关分析还揭示了每个河口鱼群之间的差异，因为物种组成之间的大多数成对相关性都不显着。我们在河口中发现了常见和广泛的物种，包括运动鱼，例如塔彭 鱼类组合，因为物种组成之间的大多数成对相关性都不显着。我们在河口中发现了常见和广泛的物种，包括运动鱼，例如塔彭 鱼类组合，因为物种组成之间的大多数成对相关性都不显着。我们在河口中发现了常见和广泛的物种，包括运动鱼，例如塔彭大西洋巨和普通斯诺克中央un。作为波多黎各对河口河鱼类鱼类群的唯一多河评估，我们的结果提供了有关鱼类群和渔业资源空间变异性的最佳可用信息。这些信息将有利于未来的保护和渔业管理工作，由于人为影响的增加，例如非法捕捞，入侵物种和引水，这是必要的。