TY - JOUR
T1 - Floodplain forests drive fruit-eating fish diversity at the Amazon Basin-scale
AU - Correa, Sandra Bibiana
AU - Coronado-Franco, Karold V.
AU - Jézéquel, Celine
AU - Rodrigues, Amanda Cantarute
AU - Evans, Kristine O.
AU - Granger, Joshua J.
AU - Steege, Hans Ter
AU - do Amaral, Iêda Leão
AU - de Souza Coelho, Luiz
AU - Wittmann, Florian
AU - de Almeida Matos, Francisca Dionízia
AU - de Andrade Lima Filho, Diógenes
AU - Salomão, Rafael P.
AU - Castilho, Carolina V.
AU - Guevara, Juan Ernesto
AU - de Jesus Veiga Carim, Marcelo
AU - Phillips, Oliver L.
AU - Piedade, Maria Teresa Fernandez
AU - Demarchi, Layon O.
AU - Schöngart, Jochen
AU - Revilla, Juan David Cardenas
AU - Martins, Maria Pires
AU - Irume, Mariana Victória
AU - Silva Guimarães, José Renan
AU - Ramos, José Ferreira
AU - Quaresma, Adriano Costa
AU - Pitman, Nigel C.A.
AU - Luize, Bruno Garcia
AU - de Leão Novo, Evlyn Márcia Moraes
AU - Venticinque, Eduardo Martins
AU - Silva, Thiago Sanna Freire
AU - Vargas, Percy Núñez
AU - Manzatto, Angelo Gilberto
AU - Reis, Neidiane Farias Costa
AU - Terborgh, John
AU - Casula, Katia Regina
AU - Honorio Coronado, Euridice N.
AU - Montero, Juan Carlos
AU - Mendoza, Abel Monteagudo
AU - Feldpausch, Ted R.
AU - Durgante, Flávia Machado
AU - Arboleda, Nicolás Castaño
AU - Marimon, Beatriz S.
AU - Marimon-Junior, Ben Hur
AU - Killeen, Timothy J.
AU - Vasquez, Rodolfo
AU - Mostacedo, Bonifacio
AU - Assis, Rafael L.
AU - do Amaral, Dário Dantas
AU - Householder, John Ethan
AU - Simon, Marcelo Fragomeni
AU - de Medeiros, Marcelo Brilhante
AU - de Queiroz, Helder Lima
AU - Lopes, Maria Aparecida
AU - Magalhães, José Leonardo Lima
AU - Stevenson, Pablo R.
AU - Cintra, Bruno Barçante Ladvocat
AU - Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro
AU - Baker, Tim R.
AU - Feitosa, Yuri Oliveira
AU - Mogollón, Hugo F.
AU - Duivenvoorden, Joost F.
AU - Ferreira, Leandro Valle
AU - de Toledo, José Julio
AU - Comiskey, James A.
AU - Lopes, Aline
AU - Damasco, Gabriel
AU - Vicentini, Alberto
AU - Valverde, Fernando Cornejo
AU - Gomes, Vitor H.F.
AU - Alonso, Alfonso
AU - Dallmeier, Francisco
AU - de Aguiar, Daniel P.P.
AU - Gribel, Rogerio
AU - Licona, Juan Carlos
AU - Zegarra, Boris Eduardo Villa
AU - Guedes, Marcelino Carneiro
AU - Cerón, Carlos
AU - Thomas, Raquel
AU - Milliken, William
AU - Campelo, Wegliane
AU - Albuquerque, Bianca Weiss
AU - Klitgaard, Bente
AU - Tello, J. Sebastián
AU - Claros, Alfredo Fuentes
AU - Rivas-Torresnnn, Gonzalo
AU - Phillips, Juan Fernando
AU - von Hildebrand, Patricio
AU - Gonzales, Therany
AU - Vela, César I.A.
AU - Hoffman, Bruce
AU - Flores, Bernardo Monteiro
AU - Pombo, Maihyra Marina
AU - Rocha, Maira
AU - Holmgren, Milena
AU - Cano, Angela
AU - Umaña, Maria Natalia
AU - Casas, Luisa Fernanda
AU - Balslev, Henrik
AU - Giraldo, Ligia Estela Urrego
AU - Bigorne, Rémy
AU - Oberdorff, Thierry
AU - Maldonado-Ocampo, Javier A.
AU - Ortega, Hernan
AU - Hidalgo, Max
AU - Martens, Koen
AU - Torrente-Vilara, Gislene
AU - Zuanon, Jansen
AU - Acosta, Astrid
AU - Agudelo, Edwin
AU - Maure, Soraya Barrera
AU - Bastos, Douglas A.
AU - Gregory, Juan Bogotá
AU - Cabeceira, Fernando G.
AU - Canto, André L.C.
AU - Carvajal-Vallejos, Fernando M.
AU - Carvalho, Lucélia N.
AU - Cella-Ribeiro, Ariana
AU - Covain, Raphaël
AU - Dias, Murilo S.
AU - Donascimiento, Carlos
AU - Dória, Carolina R.C.
AU - Duarte, Cleber
AU - Ferreira, Efrem J.G.
AU - Galuch, André V.
AU - Giarrizzo, Tommaso
AU - Leitão, Rafael P.
AU - Lundberg, John G.
AU - Maldonado, Mabel
AU - Mojica, José I.
AU - Montag, Luciano F.A.
AU - Ohara, William
AU - Pires, Tiago H.S.
AU - Pouilly, Marc
AU - Prada-Pedreros, Saúl
AU - de Queiroz, Luiz J.
AU - Py-Daniel, Lucia Rapp
AU - Ribeiro, Frank R.V.
AU - Herrera, Raúl Ríos
AU - dos Anjos, Marcelo Rodrigues
AU - Lourenco, Igor Hister
AU - Sarmiento, Jaime
AU - Sousa, Leandro M.
AU - Stegmann, Lis F.
AU - Valdiviezo-Rivera, Jonathan
AU - Villa, Francisco
AU - Yunoki, Takayuki
AU - Tedesco, Pablo A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2025 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Unlike most rivers globally, nearly all lowland Amazonian rivers have unregulated flow, supporting seasonally flooded floodplain forests. Floodplain forests harbor a unique tree species assemblage adapted to flooding and specialized fauna, including fruit-eating fish that migrate seasonally into floodplains, favoring expansive floodplain areas. Frugivorous fish are forest-dependent fauna critical to forest regeneration via seed dispersal and support commercial and artisanal fisheries. We implemented linear mixed effects models to investigate drivers of species richness among specialized frugivorous fishes across the ~6,000,000 km2 Amazon Basin, analyzing 29 species from 9 families (10,058 occurrences). Floodplain predictors per subbasin included floodplain forest extent, tree species richness (309,540 occurrences for 2,506 species), water biogeochemistry, flood duration, and elevation, with river order controlling for longitudinal positioning along the river network. We observed heterogeneous patterns of frugivorous fish species richness, which were positively correlated with floodplain forest extent, tree species richness, and flood duration. The natural hydrological regime facilitates fish access to flooded forests and controls fruit production. Thus, the ability of Amazonian floodplain ecosystems to support frugivorous fish assemblages hinges on extensive and diverse seasonally flooded forests. Given the low functional redundancy in fish seed dispersal networks, diverse frugivorous fish assemblages disperse and maintain diverse forests; vice versa, diverse forests maintain more fish species, underscoring the critically important taxonomic interdependencies that embody Amazonian ecosystems. Effective management strategies must acknowledge that access to diverse and hydrologically functional floodplain forests is essential to ensure the long-term survival of frugivorous fish and, in turn, the long-term sustainability of floodplain forests.
AB - Unlike most rivers globally, nearly all lowland Amazonian rivers have unregulated flow, supporting seasonally flooded floodplain forests. Floodplain forests harbor a unique tree species assemblage adapted to flooding and specialized fauna, including fruit-eating fish that migrate seasonally into floodplains, favoring expansive floodplain areas. Frugivorous fish are forest-dependent fauna critical to forest regeneration via seed dispersal and support commercial and artisanal fisheries. We implemented linear mixed effects models to investigate drivers of species richness among specialized frugivorous fishes across the ~6,000,000 km2 Amazon Basin, analyzing 29 species from 9 families (10,058 occurrences). Floodplain predictors per subbasin included floodplain forest extent, tree species richness (309,540 occurrences for 2,506 species), water biogeochemistry, flood duration, and elevation, with river order controlling for longitudinal positioning along the river network. We observed heterogeneous patterns of frugivorous fish species richness, which were positively correlated with floodplain forest extent, tree species richness, and flood duration. The natural hydrological regime facilitates fish access to flooded forests and controls fruit production. Thus, the ability of Amazonian floodplain ecosystems to support frugivorous fish assemblages hinges on extensive and diverse seasonally flooded forests. Given the low functional redundancy in fish seed dispersal networks, diverse frugivorous fish assemblages disperse and maintain diverse forests; vice versa, diverse forests maintain more fish species, underscoring the critically important taxonomic interdependencies that embody Amazonian ecosystems. Effective management strategies must acknowledge that access to diverse and hydrologically functional floodplain forests is essential to ensure the long-term survival of frugivorous fish and, in turn, the long-term sustainability of floodplain forests.
KW - Amazon River
KW - flood pulse
KW - flooded forest
KW - frugivory
KW - maintenance of biodiversity
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85215605477
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2414416122
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2414416122
M3 - Article
C2 - 39805021
AN - SCOPUS:85215605477
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 122
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 3
M1 - e2414416122
ER -