Ciências Marinhas: Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento

Abstrato

Environmental Influences on the Abundance of Dominant Fishes in a Very Shallow Tropical Coastal Lagoon in Northwestern Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

José Luis Bonilla-Gómez, Maribel Badillo, Korynthia López, Alfredo Gallardo, Carmen Galindo, Daniel Arceo, Xavier Chiappa-Carrara, Carmen Galindo, Daniel Arceo and Xavier Chiappa- Carrara

Spatial-seasonal patterns of six abundant fishes were analyzed in La Carbonera, a lagoon on the northwestern coast of the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico; between April 2009 and May 2010, via non-parametric multivariate analysis. The null hypothesis tested was that no differences existed in the overlapping of the abundance of fish species among the lagoon defined by types of habitats (channel, seagrass, mangrove and hypersaline), and by three climatic seasons (dry, rainy, and north winds). Significant differences were found in the environmental variables between climatic season and the types of habitat, except for the temperature and pH. Result of the multidimensional scaling suggests a significant difference in habitats with characteristics of channel and presence of mangrove. The redundancy analysis showed that depth and salinity were the best related to species abundance. Oxygen and temperature made an additional significant contribution to the canonical model, it was strongly related to the north winds season, due to the fact that the strong winds, which can last a week, increase the oxygen content of the water but decrease the temperature. Relative abundances were strongly associated with depth (dry; r=0.76), salinity (rainy; r=0.83) and oxygen (north winds; =-0.80). Results suggest that the different habitats are used as feeding zones; and that during the dry season, there was a overlapping in abundance of species. Thus, information proposed protection strategies in this season to contribute to fish biodiversity conservation in a valuable area of Yucatan Peninsula.