A synthesis of the diversity of freshwater fish migrations in the Amazon basin

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Abstract

In the Amazon, the world's largest river basin, migrations within freshwater habitats are one of the predominant life history strategies for fishes. The flood pulse and the extensive river network provide aquatic organisms with temporal and spatial accessibility to a mosaic of freshwater habitats. Although migratory fish species are central to freshwater ecosystems and fisheries, the knowledge of species and migratory patterns has traditionally relied on anecdotal and scattered information, lacking a unifying methodological and conceptual framework. We quantitatively synthesize the evidence about this biological phenomenom in the Amazon basin through a systematic literature review. We constructed a reference database of migratory events in the Amazon basin, including species, life stages, purposes, direction, habitats and subbasins. We found that 223 species were documented in 90 references as performing migrations distributed across eight orders and 31 families. Migration is a conserved trait in the evolutionary history of Amazonian fish fauna, suggesting that ~41% of migratory species are likely unreported. We noted a geographical bias in the report of migratory events towards 13 of the 27 major subbasins of the Amazon. We found a significant association between the hydrological timing at the beginning and end of migrations across species, including reproduction as the most commonly reported purpose. However, most species lack the application of robust methods (e.g. telemetry, otolith microchemistry) to classify them as migratory, relying upon secondary sources of information (i.e. reviews or species checklists). Further, we discuss future opportunities and challenges to continue the study of fish migrations in the Amazon basin.

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A movement ecology paradigm for unifying organismal movement research.

Ran Nathan, Wayne M. Getz, Eloy Revilla … (2008)

Movement of individual organisms is fundamental to life, quilting our planet in a rich tapestry of phenomena with diverse implications for ecosystems and humans. Movement research is both plentiful and insightful, and recent methodological advances facilitate obtaining a detailed view of individual movement. Yet, we lack a general unifying paradigm, derived from first principles, which can place movement studies within a common context and advance the development of a mature scientific discipline. This introductory article to the Movement Ecology Special Feature proposes a paradigm that integrates conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and empirical frameworks for studying movement of all organisms, from microbes to trees to elephants. We introduce a conceptual framework depicting the interplay among four basic mechanistic components of organismal movement: the internal state (why move?), motion (how to move?), and navigation (when and where to move?) capacities of the individual and the external factors affecting movement. We demonstrate how the proposed framework aids the study of various taxa and movement types; promotes the formulation of hypotheses about movement; and complements existing biomechanical, cognitive, random, and optimality paradigms of movement. The proposed framework integrates eclectic research on movement into a structured paradigm and aims at providing a basis for hypothesis generation and a vehicle facilitating the understanding of the causes, mechanisms, and spatiotemporal patterns of movement and their role in various ecological and evolutionary processes. "Now we must consider in general the common reason for moving with any movement whatever." (Aristotle, De Motu Animalium, 4th century B.C.).