Abstract

POVEDA-CUELLAR, José Luis; LOPEZ-DELGADO, Edwin Orlando  and  VILLA-NAVARRO, Francisco A.. Effect of the riparian vegetation cover on fish communities in the humid premontane and very humid premontane forest in the Upper Magdalena, Colombia. Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2018, vol.42, n.163, pp.216-226. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.623.

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the vegetation cover on the composition, structure and diversity of the ichthyofauna in streams of the life zones of humid premontane (bh-PM) and very humid premontane (bmh-PM) forests in the Upper Magdalena, Colombia. To do this, 23 sampling sites were distributed in the vegetal covers of pastures, mosaic of crops, shrubs and forests in the different life zones. At each location, longitudinal transects were established (100 m/variable width), fish were captured with an electro-fishing equipment and a seine net (5 m long x 1.5 height m, mesh eye 0.05 m), and, simultaneously, some environmental variables were measured. The structure and diversity of fish were calculated by using standard models. As regards diversity measured with Hill numbers, there was no significant differences between vegetal covers in the bh-PM. However, in the bmh-PM, the grass cover was the most diverse. In the Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling Analysis, no differences were found in the structure of the fish assemblage in the types of vegetal cover, however, the Canonical Correspondence Analysis showed that the canopy cover, the quality of the riparian vegetation and the altitude significantly influence the composition and distribution of the ichthyofauna. Although grass coverage presented the greatest fish diversity, this is an ideal habitat for the establishment of tolerant and invasive species due to the degradation of the riparian forest and changes in temperature suitable for the establishment of tolerant and invasive species.

Keywords : Hill numbers; Life zone; Communities; Vegetal cover; Neotropic.

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