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Sampling efforts for determining fish species richness in megadiverse tropical regions

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Abstract

Fish species richness is one of the most common descriptors of aquatic biodiversity and an important indicator of the ecological condition of stream reaches and regional biological diversity. However, inadequate sampling effort underestimates the true number of species and, consequently, might provide erroneous information about the ecological conditions of, and trends in, aquatic environments. We sampled 24 to 39 stream reaches (each 150 m long) in seven megadiverse hydrologic units in the Brazilian states of Pará (Amazonia biome) and Minas Gerais (Cerrado biome) to estimate the sampling effort needed to reach asymptotes at hydrologic unit spatial extents. We also estimated how much of the local richness would have been captured if the sampled reach was 50 or 100-m-long. Our results indicate that up to 53 reaches must be sampled per hydrologic unit for attaining an estimated 90% of the fish species richness, depending on the relative number of rare species. In most units, 100-m-long reaches suffice for collecting about 90% of the local sampled richness. We conclude that the effort frequently used in neotropical streams is adequate to capture most of the local fish fauna. However, complete inventories of hydrographic regions would only be feasible with efforts and resources far greater than those commonly employed. Before sampling programs are implemented for estimating true species richness, adequate levels of sampling effort should be assessed wherever that richness is expected to be high.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Universidade Federal de Lavras Laboratório de Ecologia de Peixes team, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Laboratório de Ecologia de Bentos team, the Pontifícia Universidade Católica-Minas Zoologia de Vertebrados Postgraduate Program team, the Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais team, the Projeto Igarapés team, and the Rede Amazônia Sustentável team for help with field sampling and laboratory work. We also thank the landowners where the reaches we sampled are located.

Funding

For Project funding and scholarships, we are grateful to Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica and Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais—Peixe Vivo Program, and PROECOS (P&D ANEEL/CEMIG GT-599), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico (CNPq #436007/2018–5), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Amazonas (FAPEAM), INCT—Biodiversidade e Uso da Terra na Amazônia (CNPq; 574008/2008–0), Embrapa (SEG: 02.08.06.005.00), the UK government Darwin Initiative (17–023), The Nature Conservancy and NERC (NE/F01614X/1 and NE/ G000816/1). Individual funding included scholarships from CAPES in Brazil and a Science without Borders grant in the UK (PDSE-2943/13–1), and a FAPESP funding (2017/25383–0) to CGL. PSP received a research grant and a research fellowship from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 303548/2017–7) and from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG PPM-00608/15). RMH received a Fulbright Brasil scholar grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Conservation, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Paulo S. Pompeu, Débora R. de Carvalho, Daniela F. Braga & Nara T. Junqueira

  2. Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil

    Cecília G. Leal

  3. Departament of Genetics, Ecology & Evolution, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Rafael P. Leitão

  4. Nuvelhas Laboratory, Manuelzão Project, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Carlos Bernardo M. Alves

  5. FAJ Consultants in Sanitary & Environmental Hydrobiology, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Miriam A. Castro

  6. Amnis Opes Institute, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Robert M. Hughes

  7. Department of Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Robert M. Hughes

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  1. Paulo S. Pompeu
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  2. Débora R. de Carvalho
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  3. Cecília G. Leal
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  5. Carlos Bernardo M. Alves
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  8. Nara T. Junqueira
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  9. Robert M. Hughes
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Débora R. de Carvalho, Cecília G. Leal, Rafael P. Leitão, Daniela F. Braga, Miriam A. Castro, Nara T. Junqueira, and Paulo S. Pompeu. Robert M. Hughes assisted with a subset of field collections. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Paulo S. Pompeu and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Paulo S. Pompeu.

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Fish samples were collected under Brazilian permits from the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and according to the institute recommendations and Brazilian environmental regulations. Permits are Sisbio licences #10327–1, #10199–2, and #24355–2 for collecting fish, both issued by ICMBio.

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Pompeu, P.S., de Carvalho, D.R., Leal, C.G. et al. Sampling efforts for determining fish species richness in megadiverse tropical regions. Environ Biol Fish 104, 1487–1499 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-021-01184-7

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