Multispecies Fisheries in the Lower Amazon River and Its Relationship with the Regional and Global Climate Variability

PLoS One. 2016 Jun 17;11(6):e0157050. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157050. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

This paper aims to describe the spatial-temporal variability in catch of the main fishery resources of the Amazon River and floodplain lakes of the Lower Amazon, as well as relating the Catch per Unit of Effort with anomalies of some of the Amazon River, atmosphere and Atlantic Ocean system variables, determining the influence of the environment on the Amazonian fishery resources. Finfish landings data from the towns and villages of the Lower Amazon for the fisheries of three sites (Óbidos, Santarém and Monte Alegre), were obtained for the period between January 1993 and December 2004. Analysis of variance, detrended correspondence analysis, redundancy analysis and multiple regression techniques were used for the statistical analysis of the distinct time series. Fisheries production in the Lower Amazon presents differences between the Amazon River and the floodplain lakes. Production in the Amazon River is approximately half of the one of the floodplain lakes. This variability occurs both along the Lower Amazon River region (longitudinal gradient) and laterally (latitudinal gradient) for every fishing ground studied here. The distinct environmental variables alone or in association act differently on the fishery stocks and the success of catches in each fishery group studied here. Important variables are the flooding events; the soil the sea surface temperatures; the humidity; the wind and the occurence of El Niño-Southern Oscillation events. Fishery productivity presents a large difference in quantity and distribution patterns between the river and floodplain lakes. This variability occurs in the region of the Lower Amazon as well as laterally for each fishery group studied, being dependent on the ecological characteristics and life strategies of each fish group considered here.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Climate Change*
  • Ecosystem*
  • El Nino-Southern Oscillation
  • Fisheries*
  • Fishes / growth & development*
  • Floods
  • Rivers
  • Temperature

Grants and funding

Funding for translation and publishing was provided by the Pro-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pos-Graduacao (www.propesp.ufpa.br) and Fundacao de Amparo e Desenvolvimento da Pesquisa (www.portalfadesp.org.br) from Universidade Federal do Para (www.portal.ufpa.br). WHDP was supported by Brazilian Ph.D. Scholarships from the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior of Brazil (www.capes.gov.br). RBS was supported by Scholarship in Research Productivity PQ CNPq 308646/2013-4 from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (www.cnpq.br). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific role of this author is articulated in the 'author contributions' section.