The importance of glacial cycles, in the Tertiary and Quaternary, and the Victoria Trindade Chain for the diversification of coastal fish fauna (Teleostei) in Brazil

Abstract

The inventory and description of the biodiversity of marine fish are important steps towards fulfilling international commitments assumed by Brazil, as the first signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity, during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and a strategic issue considering that the unsatisfactory knowledge of the taxonomy of marine and estuarine fish implies the inability to develop adequate conservation policies, with deleterious consequences not only for the maintenance of biodiversity, but also for the rational use of the natural resources of the Brazilian coast. Considering that the evolutionary processes in the marine environment are determined by different environmental conditions or historical events that favor reproductive isolation, it is expected that biogeographic patterns associated with recent historical events have influenced the evolution of a large number of species with coastal habits on the coast of Brazil, a condition that needs to be investigated based on integrative taxonomic studies, based on morphological and molecular data. Another important issue is that the best taxonomic knowledge has the potential to establish effective conservation strategies, especially in relation to degraded areas or ecosystems where biodiversity has been underestimated. In view of the above, the present project aims to: (1) Inventorize poorly sampled areas and taxonomic groups, with emphasis on marine species with coastal habits found on the coast of Brazil; (2) Expand the zoological collection of the inventoried areas, with material deposited in the LBP fish collection and in partner zoological collections, making the LBP data available in an online database; (3) Create and expand banks with tissue samples of the inventoried species; (4) Improve taxonomic knowledge of coastal fish in Brazil, producing integrative taxonomic studies of marine species with coastal habits, especially those with previous evidence of the existence of species complexes, such as the species of the genera Chaetodipterus, Chloroscombrus, Diapterus, Diplectrum, Hemicaranx, Pareques, Selar and Selene; (5) Based on appropriate molecular tools, as well as on the results of the taxonomic review work, to test and identify historical events that allow us to understand the diversification of the recent fauna of coastal fish in Brazil; (6) Train and train students to work with zoological taxonomy, always using morphological and molecular tools in the context of historical biogeography. (AU)