Dams and the fish fauna of the Neotropical region: impacts and management related to diversity and fisheries.
By A. Agostinho, F. Pelicice, L. Gomes. Brazilian journal of biology = Revista brasleira de biologia, 2008
606 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Reservoirs have been built in almost all of the hydrographic basins of Brazil. Their purposes include water supply for cities, irrigation and mainly, generation of electricity. There are more than 700 large dams and associated reservoirs in the large rivers of the country. These reservoirs favor local and regional economic development, but they also bring serious and irreversible alterations in the natural hydrologic regime of rivers, affecting habitat quality and the dynamics of the biota. In the impounded area, the main impact is the change from lotic to lentic water, which influences aquatic fauna, including fishes. Impacts of reservoirs present relevant spatiotemporal variations. Immediately after reservoir formation, fish species richness usually increases due to incorporation of surrounding habitats, but richness decreases as reservoirs age. However, impacts downstream of dams appear to be similar or stronger than those that occur within the reservoir. Dams promote discharge control, altering the seasonal cycles of floods. These effects are augmented when dams are constructed in cascades. Therefore, dams profoundly influence composition and structure of fish assemblages. Most affected species are the rheophilics and long distance migratory that require distinct habitats to fulfill their life cycles. Populations of migratory species may collapse or even disappear in intensely regulated stretches. Management actions taken to minimize impacts of dams in Brazil historically considered construction of fish passages, fishery control and stocking. The results of these actions are questionable and/or with clear failures. In this paper, we give emphasis to the Paraná River basin, the most affected by dams in Brazil. We describe some patterns in the alteration and decline in fish diversity in areas influenced by dams. We also discuss negative consequences in the fishery and ecosystems functioning. Finally, we argue the relevance and the success of the management actions taken and present some suggestions to improve conservation of the ichthyofauna in South American basins influenced by dams.
Subfields: Aquatic Science, Nature and Landscape Conservation
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8d5e2bb82fa66a6f966ff411a2037bc2b84d65d5
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Aquatic Science
In Nature and Landscape Conservation
Citations in the corpus
- Aquatic invasive species: challenges for the future (2015, background): “Reservoirs also lack the flood pulses characteristic of large rivers and their floodplains, and dams reduce the migratory opportunities of fish (Agostinho et al., 2004, 2008).”
- Peixes da planície de inundação do alto rio Paraná e áreas adjacentes: revised, annotated and updated (2018, background): “, 2004b) and flux characteristics of its main channel and landscape, mainly due to the construction of dams over the years (Agostinho et al., 2008).”
- A Serious New Threat to Brazilian Freshwater Ecosystems: The Naturalization of Nonnative Fish by Decree (2014, background): “We emphasize that fish invasion and its related consequences due to this specific law will not be restricted to Brazil: hydroelectric reservoirs are found in all large basins of the country (there are more than 700 large dams; Agostinho et al. 2007; Agostinho et al. 2008), several of these basins ar”
- Fish assemblages in Neotropical reservoirs: Colonization patterns, impacts and management (2016, background): “Such impacts are evident in the intensive farming conducted in caging nets installed in Brazilian reservoirs, which has received subsides from the governmental financial agencies related to fish production (Agostinho et al., 2008b; Lima et al., 2012).”
- Seed dispersal by fishes in tropical and temperate fresh waters: The growing evidence (2011, background): “Several studies in Brazil have shown that the construction of dams causes marked changes in the fish communities with the decline of long-distance migratory species as the most conspicuous change (Agostinho et al., 2008).”